Apple's new updated and expanded iPhone, the 3G S, goes on sale June 19 and will cost $199 and $299, depending on the model. The current 3G will be reduced in price to $99.

The iPhone's various e-book apps, including Stanza, have been very popular. The New York Times noted that "ScrollMotion, a start-up based in New York, unveiled an application at [Apple's software development] convention called Iceberg, a digital bookstore that will let users purchase best sellers from within the application without having to open a browser."

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Zutano, the Cabot, Vt., company that makes "colorful baby clothes," is opening a "store-within-the-store" in the children's section of the Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., according to the Barre Montpelier Times-Argus.

Zutano has its own store in Montpelier and a store-within-the-store in FAO Schwarz in New York City.

"We are putting more and more effort into making our children's section world class," Northshire's Chris Morrow said. "This is a great opportunity for both partners, as Zutano represents an internationally-respected brand with deep roots in Vermont, and the store will be an amazing complement to our product offerings in the children's department."

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Wired's list of 18 challenges in contemporary literature begins in workmanlike fashion: "Literature is language-based and national; contemporary society is globalizing and polyglot." By the end, however, there's a bit of drama: "The Gothic fate of poor slain Poetry is the specter at this dwindling feast."

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There must be a word for this: in the coming week, the English language will consist officially of at least one million words, according to the Global Language Monitor, which tracks the use of new words, the Telegraph reported.

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This item, in its entirety, is from Central Illinois Proud:

Peoria--A bookstore that closed earlier this year is reopening. Berean Christian Bookstore in Evergreen Square closed in February. Owner Dave Byrne said it was due to a steady decline in sales. But the person Byrne bought the store from several years ago is reopening it. Joe Hoerr says he felt called to bring the store back. Berean Bookstore will open its doors again Thursday, and have a grand opening celebration later this summer.

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In today's New York Times, Charles McGrath rides a few laps (figuratively and literally) with A.J. Baime, whose new book, Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), starts off today.

"I saw the book as an action-adventure story and also as a cultural history, about the fascination of speed in the 1960s," Baime said. "But it's also a business story about a company that is going to try to survive at the very dawn of globalization."

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Barnes & Noble proudly noted that "for the sixth year in a row, the company is the nation's top bookselling brand," as measured by the 2009 EquiTrend Brand Study of more than 24,000 consumers that was conducted by Harris Interactive. B&N was judged No. 1 in overall brand equity, defined as "a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent."

In addition, for the second year in a row, B&N was No. 1 in "overall quality among the nation's bookstores" and for the first time, No. 2 "retailer in trust among all retailers tested."

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At BEA, we ran into our friend, Paul Kozlowski, aka PK, the former Knopf marketing director, who is, among other things, blogging. His PK in the Terrarium is a thoughtful, well-written oasis in the blogosphere.

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These are noteworthy times for Shakespeare and Company, the iconic Paris bookshop, as well as its 95-year-old owner, George Whitman. Bloomberg reported that the "French government recently recognized the singularity of Whitman's efforts by elevating the American bookseller to the rank of Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, one of the country's highest honors and rarely given to a foreigner."

In addition, his daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman, "who in 2006 returned with a broom and a marketing plan after 10 years in London and Edinburgh . . . is now revitalizing the shop where Durrell and Ginsberg read her bedtime stories between stacks on which Harold Robbins's potboilers were often found propping up first editions of A Moveable Feast."

"There was so much dust and dad refused to install a telephone until I came home," said Sylvia. "Hemingway understood there was no difference between a great restaurant and a great bookshop. Great food and great books can never be consumed, just digested, and you must keep reinventing them."

Bloomberg observed that "three years into the renovation, Whitman says she has reached a peace agreement with her father. He has acquiesced to opening a cafe and a theater. The decrepit rooms for writers are being spruced up to lure back older authors who honed themselves at 37 Rue de la Bucherie."

Sylvia noted that it was on the Internet where she discovered the bookshop's potential to reach a contemporary audience. "The virtual village website secondlife.com named the town’s bookstore Shakespeare and Company," she said. "When you clicked the icon to buy a book, Amazon.com popped up. I put an end to that right away, but it proved that everybody in the world has heard about what dad built here. I don’t need to rebrand the place, the job is to retool what we have and take it into the future."

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Derbhile Dromey chose her "10 best bookshops in the world" for the Independent:

1. American Book Center, Amsterdam
2. Shakespeare and Company, Paris
3. Smoker's Corner, Mumbai
4. Clarke's Bookshop, Cape Town
5. City Lights Books, San Francisco
6. Basheer Graphic Books, Singapore
7. Octagon Books, New Zealand
8. London Review Bookshop, London
9. Boat Books, Sydney/Melbourne
10. Strand Bookstore, New York

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"How-to-get-rich bibles are not the substance of life," Vachira Buason, owner of Samanchon Bookshop, Hangdong, Chiang Mai, told the Bangkok Post, which suggested that "small bookshops go for quality in order to attract customers ."

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Two previously unpublished Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie have been discovered among her family papers. The Guardian reported that the works were unearthed "from the crates of letters, drafts and notebooks stored by Christie at Greenway, her adored holiday home set in a seaside garden in Devon."

The new stories will be included in Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making, which will be published by HarperCollins in September.

The new Barnes & Noble Recommends pick is The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (Hyperion/Voice), whose pub date is today.

"The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is both thrilling and romantic at the same time," Jaime Carey, chief merchandising officer of B&N, said in a statement. "This debut novel from Katherine Howe deftly intertwines the Salem Witch trials of the 1690s with a modern woman's story of discovery."

The story, B&N said, centers on Ph.D. candidate Connie Goodwin's discovery in the home of her late grandmother near Salem, Mass., of "an antique key with a piece of paper tucked inside it, bearing the words 'Deliverance Dane.' Obsessed with solving the mystery of the key and the meaning of 'Deliverance Dane,' Connie is led down a path she never would have believed or anticipated, including an introduction to a steeplejack who helps her uncover truths about her family's history and herself."

One B&N bookseller said, "I devoured this book! An academic mystery for fans of The Historian, Garden Spells, Possession, or Anne Rice's Mayfair books." Another said, "Read this book and feel history being rewritten."

ForeWord magazine editor-in-chief Heather Shaw moderated the panel featuring five independent publishers whose offerings ranged from a myth-based mystery to a memoir about a writer's life.

The Stoneholding by James G. Anderson and Mark Sebanc

The Stoneholding won't show up in stores until September, but the fantasy tale has already had quite a journey. It was originally self-published, followed by a limited edition hardcover produced by Peter Glassman, owner of the New York City children's bookstore Books of Wonder.

Baen Books editor Jim Minz praised the "beautiful, lyrical writing" of author duo James G. Anderson and Mark Sebanc, who tell the story of Kal, a young man who sets out on quest of danger and discovery in the ancient world of Ahn Norvys. Minz read a quotation by Glassman, who had high praise for the novel: "If you and your teen readers love the depth of history in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the compelling adventure of Christopher Paolini's Eragon, then you're sure to love The Stoneholding."


Lights on a Ground of Darkness: An Evocation of a Place and Time by Ted Kooser

"If it's good enough for Ted's mother, it's good enough for us," said Tom Swanson of Ted Kooser's Lights on a Ground of Darkness, which will be published by Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press in September. When his mother was on her deathbed, Kooser took up the task of recording her family history as well as his own memories of visits to his grandparents Iowa home. The result is Lights on a Ground of Darkness, a "quiet, wonderful" portrait of Midwestern life.

Kooser was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and is a former U.S. poet laureate. He's the author of many books of poetry and the prose title Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps.


Swan Dive by Michael Burke

This debut novel is "intriguing, sexy, smart and complicated. That's what I like about my mysteries," said Jack Estes, publisher of Pleasure Boat Studio. Swan Dive (September) is loosely based on the myth of Leda and the swan, which has it that Zeus came to earth in the guise of a swan to seduce the beautiful Leda.

"Blue" Heron, whose his nickname comes from his melancholy demeanor, is a "naïve, down-and-out loner" and a detective who becomes embroiled in a shady business deal that leads to murder. Author Michael Burke, an artist and sculptor, is the son of the late philosopher Kenneth Burke.

Estes described Swan Dive as "blue collar fiction" for Heron's blue collar roots and the small New England factory town where the book is set. The story is told in the first person, giving the reader the chance to "figure things out along with Blue," Estes said. Then he threw down the gauntlet, saying, "I would challenge any reader to try to guess the end."


When Autumn Leaves by Amy S. Foster

Amy Foster's debut novel, When Autumn Leaves (September), is a "modern tale of magic," said the Overlook Press' Juliet Grames. In a small Pacific coast town, resident witch Autumn has been promoted to a higher coven and sets out to find her replacement from a list of 13 candidates. All she has to do is get them to open their eyes to the magic in their lives.

"Where Amy has put her finger on the pulse of what America wants to read," said Grames, is in depicting characters facing real-life struggles--even if they do have a little enchantment on their sides. "There is something really musical about the story as well," Grames added. In fact, music is in Foster's genes. She's a songwriter and the daughter of Grammy Award-winning record producer David Foster.


Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life by Michael Greenberg

Readers of Michael Greenberg's 2008 memoir Hurry Down Sunshine, about his teenage daughter's mental breakdown, had two criticisms of the book, noted Other Press publisher Judith Gurewich. One was that there wasn't enough on the author's experiences as a struggling writer in New York City. The other, expressed in a Wall Street Journal review, was that Greenberg did not say how he paid his daughter's hospital bills.

Both are addressed in Beg, Borrow, Steal (September), including the varied professions Greenberg undertook to make ends meet such as cosmetics salesman and taxi driver (a stint that ended with his cab exploding). There are also stories about the publication of Hurry Down Sunshine--an Indies Choice Book Award honor recipient for "Best Conversation Starter"--and what it's like to write a memoir about people you know. "Every sentence [in Beg, Borrow, Steal] is so pithy and perfect you smile," said Gurewich, who promised that bibliophiles will "read it and laugh."

--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

A highlight of the ABA program at BEA was an evening tribute to outgoing CEO Avin Domnitz that included a film and a short play whose roles were filled by most of the ABA presidents during his tenure.

In opening remarks, the new ABA CEO, Oren Teicher, said that "America's independent bookstores never had a more passionate or effective advocate than Avin" and that "hundreds of bookstores across the U.S. are in business because of Avin." He added that Domnitz's "uncanny ability to teach things some are reluctant to learn is extraordinary."

John Ingram, chairman of the Ingram Content Group, gave a sense of Domnitz's influence, saying that "two million Lightning Source titles are in stock because of Avin's push on Ingram for aggressive title expansion. No one understands the needs of booksellers better than you do."

With help from Lightning Source, Ingram presented a bound book that contained a list Domnitz has kept of every book he's read in the last 40 years--with room to continue adding titles. Domnitz had kept track of his reading in a spiral-bound notebook.

Outgoing ABA president Gayle Shanks, co-owner of Changing Hands, Tempe, Ariz., noted that within 24 hours of announcing Domnitz's retirement, "my e-mail box was full. Not a single one said, 'Thank God he's going.' " She then read excerpts from some of the missives. Among them: "This man changed our bookselling lives. I can't imagine life without him." "How can he leave us now?" And "he has a very cool name."

Former ABA president Mitch Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in south Florida and the Cayman Islands, declared that he "always felt an affinity toward Avin--maybe because my father was a trial lawyer and a pain in the ass."

Domnitz thanked the booksellers on hand. "We have tried to help you every day." Then waving his hand, he added, "And about all those financial seminars--I was kidding!"

He called Teicher "the right person to take the ABA to places I couldn't. Listen to him. Follow him. He is a wise man."

Domnitz thanked his wife, Rita, whom he called "the best, my partner." He said, too, that his life "consists of baseball, my family and books. There is no bigger honor than to give a person a book. The integrity, the honor, the goodness of people who sell books and read books will put us in a good place. Because of the ABA we will make it."

He ended by recalling that he and David Schwartz, his partner at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, used to end meetings with a toast, which he then gave to the assembled guests: "To books and the people who sell them!"--Reporting by Susan L. Weis

Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Karl Weber, author of Food Inc. (PublicAffairs, $14.95, 9781586486945/1586486942).

Also on GMA: Katherine Howe, author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Voice, $25.99, 9781401340902/1401340903).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Paula Froelich, author of Mercury in Retrograde: A Novel (Atria, $24, 9781416598930/1416598936).

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Tomorrow on a rerun of Oprah: Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential (Atria, $26, 9781582701998/1582701997).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Peter G. Peterson, author of The Education of an American Dreamer: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way from a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond (Twelve, $34.99, 9780446556033/0446556033).

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Tomorrow an E! True Hollywood Story about Patrick Swayze will feature Patrick Swayze: One Last Dance by Wendy Leigh (Simon Spotlight, $24.99, 9781439149973/1439149976).

Javier Bardem "is negotiating to star in Eat, Pray, Love, the Ryan Murphy-directed adaptation of the Elizabeth Gilbert memoir for Columbia Pictures," according to Variety, which reported that he could join a cast that currently includes Julia Roberts and Richard Jenkins. 

Selected new titles appearing next Monday and Tuesday, June 15 and 16:

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafron, translated by Lucia Graves (Doubleday, $26.95, 9780385528702/0385528701). From the author of The Shadow of the Wind, this tale is also set in Barcelona in the world of books.

Dune Road: A Novel by Jane Green (Viking, $25.95, 9780670020867/0670020869) follows a single mother who accidently uncovers an important secret about her employer, a notoriously reclusive writer.

Knockout by Catherine Coulter (Putnam, $26.95, 9780399155840/0399155848) tags along as FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock chase a telepathic seven-year-old who witnessed a horrific crime.

L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad (HarperCollins, $17.99, 9780061767586/0061767581) scrutinizes the seemingly desirable yet tenuous celebrity life of a teenaged reality TV star.

The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner (Bantam, $25, 9780553807233/0553807234) follows a detective investigating the disappearance of a young mother in Boston.

A Rogue of My Own by Johanna Lindsey (Pocket, $25.99, 9781416598886/141659888X) is a historical romance about a witless bride and Queen Victoria's spymaster.

Real Change: The Fight for America's Future by Newt Gingrich (Regnery, $16.95, 9781596985896/1596985895) presents political views from a former Speaker of the House.

Kissinger: 1973, the Crucial Year by Alistair Horne (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9780743272834/0743272838) explores the secretary of state appointed during a year that included withdrawal from Vietnam, the unfolding of Watergate and the oil embargo.


Now in paperback:

Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions, $11.99, 9781439168578/1439168571).

Sensuality: Caramel Flava II by Zane (Atria, $15, 9781416548843/141654884X).

A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand (Back Bay Books, $14.99, 9780316018616/0316018619).

The winners of the 2009 English-Speaking Union Ambassador Book Awards for works best depicting American life and culture are:

• American Studies: Christopher Benfey, for A Summer of Hummingbirds (Penguin)
• Current Affairs: Jane Mayer, for The Dark Side (Doubleday)
• Fiction: Steven Millhauser, for Dangerous Laughter (Knopf)
• Poetry: Alan Shapiro, for Old War (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Biography and Autobiography: Donald Worster, for A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir (Oxford University Press)

In addition, Toni Morrison won a special Ambassador Book Award for her books' "illumination of African-American experience."

The awards ceremony was presided over Pat Schroeder, former AAP head who is the new chairman of the English-Speaking Union of the United States.

 
In Trouble, Kate Christensen who won the Pen/Faulkner Award for her previous novel, The Great Man, once again turns her eye to the complicated inner lives of a trio of women. Whereas the characters in The Great Man were septuagenarians, Trouble focuses on a group of women in their 40s, best friends since their college days, who are all struggling--and often failing--to cope with their middle-age lives.
 
Josie, the novel's narrator, is a New York City therapist whose marriage to a college professor has long grown cold and whose relationship with her adopted pre-teen daughter is strained at best. Her friend Indrani, a fabulously wealthy fellow New Yorker, is unhappily childless and permanently unlucky in love. The third friend, Raquel, a famous ex-junkie rock singer whose star is fading, lives in Los Angeles. In a brilliantly written early scene, Josie decides to end her marriage while at a louche holiday party at Indrani's luxurious apartment. After drinking herself silly enough to hook up with a stranger, Josie calls it quits with her husband and begins looking for an apartment of her own. Before she can get too far, however, Josie receives a distressed call from Raquel whose affair with a 20-something actor has become lurid tabloid and Internet blog fodder. Plotting escape, Raquel begs Josie to join her in Mexico, and Josie is more than willing to go.
 
From here, the novel shifts to Mexico City--and Josie's reawakening sexuality. The two friends drink and smoke their way across the city, taking time out to go clubbing, check out the local art scene (and an attractive artist, Felipe) and complain about Indrani whom both see as critical and judgmental. As Josie indulges her inner bad girl and begins a sizzling affair with Felipe, Raquel becomes increasingly--and dangerously--morose.
 
Christensen writes with great elegance and pitch perfect detail, lacing the narrative with plenty of her trademark sardonic wit. Most compelling, however, is what lies beneath the surface. It seems obvious that Josie, a therapist and witness to her friend's previous addictions, would notice Raquel's slide into her old habits. Yet through Josie, Christensen skillfully illustrates how frustration, doubt and an insidious fear of aging lead Josie into a kind of understandable selfishness and away from Raquel. Ultimately the novel becomes a deeply thoughtful examination of the meaning of female friendship and the nature of emotional sacrifice.--Debra Ginsberg
 
Shelf Talker: Acclaimed author Kate Christensen follows her award-winning novel, The Great Man, with this compelling, expertly crafted novel about the complicated lives and friendships of three women coming to terms with middle age.