One upcoming book about swindler Bernie Madoff has an unusual twist: in Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me, Sheryl Weinstein, onetime CFO at Hadassah, the Jewish volunteer organization, says she had an affair with Madoff for 20 years that spanned a period when Hadassah was investing heavily in Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the New York Times reported. Published by St. Martin's, the book appears August 25.

Weinstein worked for Hadassah for 12 years, ending in 1997, after which the organization made no more investments in Madoff's company. When the scheme collapsed, Hadassah had millions of dollars on the books with Madoff but was one of the investors that withdrew more than it invested. Weinstein and her family, however, said they had invested all their assets with Madoff and lost them.

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The New York Times surveys college textbook rental programs that are being instituted or tested by several publishers and booksellers. Among them: a program by Cengage, formerly Thomson Learning, announced yesterday under which the company will rent textbooks to students at 40%-70% discounts and will give them immediate e-access to the first chapters. At the end of the rental period, students may either return or buy the printed book.

Follett and Barnes & Noble College are testing rental programs at some of their college stores.

The rental programs are meant to reduce students' textbook costs and "give both publishers and textbook authors a way to continue earning money from their books after the first sale, something they do not get from the sale of used textbooks."

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Knopf noted yesterday that Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, originally published in 1961 and a backlist seller ever since, is now "a national bestseller for the first time," thanks, of course, to the movie Julie & Julia, based on the book by Julie Powell. (Oh and it's a Nora Ephron film starring Meryl Streep.)

In nearly 50 years, the book has sold more than a million copies; last year some 25,000 copies of the hardcover and trade paperback editions were sold. After four reprintings for the movie, three of which were in the last week, more than 225,000 copies of Mastering the Art of French Cooking have been added to the mix.

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Random House is releasing an e-version of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown simultaneously with the publication of the $29.95 book on September 15, meaning that the publisher is not challenging Amazon's $9.99 pricing policy on e-books for the Kindle. The Wall Street Journal noted, "Some in publishing suggested that Amazon might have responded [to a later e-book pub date] by disengaging the 'buy' button for the physical edition of Mr. Brown's book."

Random House explained its decision by saying that "all of our security and logistical issues surrounding the e-book of The Lost Symbol have been resolved."

Next similar difficult decision for a publisher: Scribner's launch November 10 of Stephen King's Under the Dome, priced at $35.

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The last of Green Apple Books's Book vs. Kindle smackdown videos features Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, in an apocalyptic moment when a fan at a signing asks him to sign his Kindle.

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The Examiner examines four bookstores in Knoxville, Tenn., including Book Eddy, Carpe Librum, Borders and Barnes & Noble.

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The Los Angeles Times's Jacket Copy reports that former president Bill Clinton wrote to the blog to make a small correction and noted what he has been reading lately (with his annotations):

1. Steven Johnson's The Invention of Air and The Ghost Map, esp. #1
2. Tom Zoellner's Uranium
3. Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, his best book.
4. John Bogle's Enough
5. Selden Edwards' The Little Book
6. Richard North Patterson's Eclipse
7. Andrew Greeley's The Cardinal Sins (now almost 30 years old)

After four months of sales drops, in June bookstores sales turned around and rose 3.4%, to $1.101 billion, compared to the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales have dropped 2.8% to $7.412 billion.

By comparison, total retail sales in June dropped 8.6% to $312.518 billion compared to the same period a year ago. For the year to date, total retail sales were down 11% to $1,986.448 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.

More changes at Borders Group, where the U.S. branch of the Paperchase the stationery subsidiary, which has headquarters in London, has undergone a reorganization:

• Jim Frering is joining the company as v-p, Paperchase U.S. operations. He formerly worked at Linen 'N Things for 10 years, most recently as corporate v-p, financial and merchandise planning and control.
• Paperchase U.S. president Dick Lynch is leaving the company.
• Teresa Wright, v-p, Paperchase U.S. merchandising, is being reassigned to the Borders Group merchandising-non-book buying team. She will be supported by the U.S. merchandising organization while continuing to work closely with the Paperchase U.K. product development and buying team.

There are currently 335 Paperchase shops in Borders stores in the U.S. and some 120 Paperchase stores outside the U.S.

In a statement, Borders CEO Ron Marshall explained the changes: "Paperchase is a great brand and a successful business in the U.K. that has further growth potential in the U.S. through the continued expansion of the shops within our Borders superstores as well as through further improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of how we operate the business here. By creating a closer connection between the U.K. leadership and our U.S. team, we'll be in the best position to take advantage of these opportunities."

When deciding where to open a bookstore, Nikki Furrer considered both her hometown of St. Louis, Mo., and Brooklyn, N.Y., where she was living at the time. The Midwest won out, and last October she opened Pudd'nhead Books in Webster Groves, a St. Louis suburb. "It's vital to a bookseller to understand their neighborhood and the mindset, perspective and outlook of their customers, and I understand people more here," Furrer said.

The store's name was inspired by Missouri native Mark Twain's novel Pudd'nhead Wilson. "The main character is an attorney who doesn't practice law, so I thought it was appropriate," said Furrer, who shares a similar background. Beside having a law degree, she took the Columbia Publishing Course and worked at the literary agency Writers House.

While at the agency, Furrer met Ron Currie, Jr., whose novel Everything Matters! is a bestseller at Pudd'nhead Books. Since it went on sale in late June, more than 125 copies have sold. "It's a stunning, heartbreaking book, and it deserves all the attention it can get," said Furrer. She sent an e-mail to customers about it and has it displayed prominently throughout the store, including at the register, where Pudd'nhead Book Club selections are featured. A men's book club that meets at the store is reading the book as well, and both groups had a chat with the author via Skype.

Furrer is joining forces with other area booksellers to host an event with Currie this fall. She asked them to participate in a joint event to make it more enticing for the publisher to send Currie to St. Louis. In addition, Furrer is lining up visits for him at local high schools.

Another author who created buzz recently at Pudd'nhead Books was Jennifer Weiner. After seeing a poll on Weiner's Facebook page about which city should be her last stop to promote Best Friends Forever, published last month, Furrer and her staff reached out to their networks of friends and customers and rallied votes for St. Louis. She received the go-ahead 10 days before the event and within 24 hours--and after 47 phone calls--had secured an offsite venue. She invited a local chocolate shop, Kakao, to provide free samples to attendees.

Last week it was Furrer's turn to venture to Kakao for a Book Tasting soirée. She presented a selection of page-turners to an audience made up primarily of chocolate shop clientele. "We had a packed crowd, and about 25% have since come into my shop to buy books," said Furrer. She is planning to do the Book Tasting again, as well as host similar events for teachers and book clubs at the store beginning in the fall.

Another way that Furrer has attracted new customers is at a farmers market, where for a nominal fee she sets up shop on Saturdays and offers a selection of cookbooks and regional titles. "I sell enough to cover all the expenses," said Furrer, "and the advertising at the market, which is in a park that's not in my neighborhood, draws all kinds of people into the store who might not have heard about it otherwise."

Since Pudd'nhead Books opened, inventory has shifted to reflect customer interests. "What people come in and ask for is really what I focus on more than what's in a catalogue," said Furrer. An example is One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus, which was published more than a decade ago. The book was not stocked at the store until "somebody came in and asked for it," said Furrer. "Now we're going through stacks of them."

The store's buyback program is also popular with Pudd'nhead Books customers. Customers who purchase a book at full price can return it and receive 25% of the cover price as store credit. The "gently loved" book is then sold for half off. It can't be returned, meaning that the used books will have been read by only one other person. "They come in and check that shelf first," said Furrer. The program appeals to customers in several ways: the money savings as well as not having to find space for new additions on their bookshelves. "Shelf-worthy is the new term that has come up," Furrer commented. "Is this book shelf-worthy? If not, they're going to trade it in for something else."

The 1,500-sq.-ft. store is located in what Furrer described as a "family-oriented" neighborhood. Webster University is nearby, along with two high schools. "Everyone knows everyone else," she said. "It's like a tiny college town in the middle of a bigger city." Neighborhood residents, it seems, want to make sure Pudd'nhead Books is there to stay. "I'm hitting the original sales figures that I hoped for before the economic meltdown kicked in," Furrer said. "Customers keep asking how it's going, and my answer is: beyond expectations."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

As the back-to-school crunch looms, Sylvan Dell Publishing is offering e-book previews and bilingual audio readings to booksellers, teachers, librarians and parents on its website from now through October 31.
 
The e-book version of Count Down to Fall by Fran Hawk, illustrated by Sherry Nedigh, for instance, teaches readers not only about "four craggy oak leaves" and--in the four corners of the spread--their stages in all four seasons and (with an audible page turn) "three-pointed maple leaves,/ yellow, orange and red," but also readers can see and hear the text in both English and Spanish. Children can select the language of the text in the center of the screen and the language for audio in the upper right-hand corner, making this a valuable teaching tool for children just beginning to read as well as those learning Spanish or English. Sylvan Dell's Lee German encourages parents and teachers to "take a test-drive" for themselves. All 45 of the publishers' titles are offered for this free trial.
 
Last year, co-founders Lee and Donna German awarded free e-book site licenses to Sylvan Dell books for more than 2,600 elementary and Title I/III schools nationwide through their School Resource Grant Program. The publisher is developing "an online data capture system" so teachers can track students' performance as well as an iPhone, iPod and iPod touch application to make their e-books available on handheld devices. "We want moms, dads, and grandparents to be able to record a reading of our books and add that audio to the language selection list," said Lee German. "This is especially important for military families with a parent overseas."

Julie Buxbaum, author of The Opposite of Love, published last year by Dial Press, and After You, published this month by Dial, is a recovering lawyer and a full-time novelist. Her work has been translated into 18 languages. Originally from New York, Julie currently lives in London, where she has elevated complaining about the weather to an art form.  Visit her online at juliebuxbaum.com.

On your nightstand now: 

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz, both fun YA novels; I have a teenager in my next book, so I've been embracing my inner 15-year-old. The Making of a Marchioness (one of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novels for adults). Home by Marilynne Robinson, which I've been putting off reading, because Gilead is so painfully beautiful that I can't imagine a sequel living up to it.

Favorite book when you were a child: 

Hands down The Secret Garden, which is still my favorite. My second novel, After You, is, in many ways, a love letter to that book.

Your top five authors: 

Is it uncool to say Jane Austen? Also, Richard Powers, Vladimir Nabokov, Milan Kundera, and I have a huge writer crush on Zadie Smith.

Book you've faked reading: 

I rarely fake reading--if only because I'm cursed with the inability to lie convincingly--but I've definitely failed to mention not finishing. I made it only three-quarters of the way through War and Peace, but still managed to do a presentation on it in college. Have a feeling my professor hadn't read the whole thing either.

Book you're an evangelist for: 

Again, The Secret Garden. Couldn't love it more. 
 
Book you've bought for the cover: 

You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers, because the first page is printed right on the cover. And I dig Eggers.

Book that changed your life: 

Any and all of the books from the Nancy Drew series. She taught me that life is a lot more fun if you are curious.

Favorite line from a book:

"Willie and Rose turned out not to be cousins, just how nobody knows, and so they married and had children and sang with them and sometimes singing made Rose cry and sometimes it made Willie get more and more excited and they lived happily ever after and the world just went on being round."--The last line of The World Is Round by Gertrude Stein.

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

I guess Stein's The World Is Round, which on the cover says "A BOOK for children." Funny, I don't think it's for children at all. Either way, it's pure pleasure to read out loud.

What if a veterinarian contacts you with the following proposition: she has just surgically removed the eyes of a four-week-old male kitten with a severe eye infection; he is otherwise healthy; nobody else seems about to step up to save a blind eyeless baby from euthanasia; would you be willing to meet the kitten and consider taking him home? Gwen Cooper, who had two female cats already, was in dire financial straits and had just broken up with a boyfriend, got such a call. She was willing to take a look but didn't want to promise anything; in her rational mind, she wanted to pass on the offer.

When Gwen met the kitten, he nestled in her hand and turned his head toward her. Even with his eyelids stitched closed, he fixed her with an expression that communicated volumes. She imagined his whole being saying to her, "Hi! You seem goodhearted and fun. Don't you find that people generally are goodhearted and fun?" What else could her next move be? Reader, she adopted the kitten.

Homer, sightless yet courageous, did require Gwen to pay close attention to him to prevent disaster: what if he wandered out the door without knowing about traffic and steep drops into nowhere? The extra care that Gwen devoted to Homer brought her unexpected insights in addition to all the fun--Homer's only fear was being alone; sound explained his world to him, and, most importantly, she writes, "I wanted his strength, his courage, his reflexive loyalty. I wanted to be as cheerful as he was in the face of adversity. And I wanted a man with those same qualities."

While Gwen waited for the human equivalent of Homer to appear, she and Homer guaranteed each other's security. She saved his young life, and he (who, at four pounds, was tiny) proved to be a superior guard cat at a critical moment. For Gwen's ongoing romantic quest, Homer was always there to play his role as a deal-maker or a deal-breaker. Upon meeting Homer, one aspiring swain hissed at him and backed him into a corner. As Gwen pondered what kind of person would want to frighten a blind cat, she opened the door and banished Bachelor Number One forever. Other swains may have passed muster for longer periods of time, but when Gwen broke up with them, some would ask, "Does this mean I can't see Homer ever again?" Readers enchanted by Homer's many sublime and loving antics will know exactly how they felt at such a prospect.--John McFarland

Shelf Talker: A heart-warming and charming memoir of how adopting a sightless kitten brought joy and love (and new direction) into a woman's life.

Suddenly, incessantly, "an electric flash of intelligence spreads over the country, carrying the thrill of gratification or of grief."

Your reaction to that line could depend upon your attitude toward, and experience of, the alternate verbal universe known as Twitter. This particular sentence, however, is taken from an article in the August 1873 issue of Harper's magazine and refers to the telegraph.

More recently (yesterday, in fact), USA Today began an article with this Shakespearean twist: "To Twitter. Or not to Twitter. That is the question the publishing world is asking these days."

I don't have the answer, but I'm working on a theory. My research is based primarily on personal experience and observation, with a bit of Darwinism and historical precedent thrown in to create the illusion of rationality.

What I'm suggesting, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, is that booksellers have already mastered the key tool that will propel them into the brave new bookselling world of social media in general and Twitter in particular.
   
This tool is called the shelf talker. 

In my bookselling lifetime, I've witnessed a decline in the influence of long form reviews on readers, but I've seen no diminishment in the power of the shelf talker. And since short and sweet--often acronymic--writing rules the day, this strengthens the position of booksellers, who mastered the art of concise prose a long time ago.

Admittedly I haven't worked out all the details, but I suspect that success in selling bundles containing lots of words (in book or e-book format) will go to those who can make the most convincing argument with the fewest words. A little ironic, I know, but aren't we the poster children for irony?

Think outside the book business for a moment. Whether texting or tweeting, WTFing or LOLing, more and more people are opting for condensed, rapid-fire communication. And that's where Darwin comes into the picture. According to the Harper's article mentioned above, "By the principle which Darwin describes as natural selection short words are gaining the advantage of long words, direct forms of expression are gaining the advantage of the ambiguous, and local idioms are everywhere at a disadvantage. The doctrine of Survival of the Fittest thus tends to the constant improvement and points to the ultimate unification of language."

Now add a dash of historical precedent. As was pointed out recently by Ben Schott in the New York Times, "The 140-character limit of Twitter posts was guided by the 160-character limit established by the developers of SMS. However, there is nothing new about new technology imposing restrictions on articulation. During the late 19th-century telegraphy boom, some carriers charged extra for words longer than 15 characters and for messages longer than 10 words. Thus, the cheapest telegram was often limited to 150 characters."

So, booksellers may have an evolutionary and historical edge over other bookish Twitter scribes? Anyone who has worked in a bookstore that focuses on staff recommend tags knows the awesome power of those modest-looking slips of paper. 

Shelf talkers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are handwritten, some typed, some encased in plastic, some laminated. But even if they are just shredded scraps left untended, crumpled and grievously wounded, they still sell books until their last drop of faded ink.

Earlier this year, the folks at Green Apple Books & Music, San Francisco, Calif., ran a great series on their Green Apple Core blog about the power and beauty of that bookshop's unique shelf talkers.

And what is the Indie Next List but shelf-talkers for a national audience?

Booksellers are well prepared to take their shelf-talkability into the Age of Verbal Condensation. Many have already answered the "To Twitter or not to Twitter" question affirmatively. Here's just a tiny sampling: @bookavore, @readandbreathe, @joebfoster, @booknerdnyc, @KatherineBoG, @indierob, @corpuslibris @KarenCorvello, @RichRennicks, @WendyHudson, @kashbk.

Books are being discussed and handsold with intelligence, with passion, with brevity--Twitter as shelf-talker platform.

Ralph Waldo Emerson saw this coming, of course. "I think the habit of writing by telegraph will have a happy effect on all writing by teaching condensation," he wrote in 1866.

And Harper's observed in 1873: "When we consider the immense number of people that every day by writing a telegram and counting the words are taking a most efficient lesson in concise composition, we see in another way the influence of this invention on the strength of language."

Are shelf talkers the next great evolutionary step? Maybe that is the question.--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)