On the front page today, the Wall Street Journal dissects the dispute between Amazon.com and Toys R Us, "a case study of how quickly promising alliances can turn into acrimonious business disputes as companies adjust to the shifting realities of the Web."

At the core of the suit and countersuit by the two companies: Toys R Us says that it should be the exclusive seller of toys, games and baby products on Amazon, while Amazon argues that it needs a full line of pertinent products and should be allowed to sell or have other retailers sell products Toys R Us doesn't stock. The point is important for Amazon, the Journal emphasizes, because while Amazon derives more than 90% of revenue from what it sells, it gains almost a third of profit from other retailers who sell on Amazon.com.

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A Turkish court today dropped charges against Orhan Pamuk, the author of Snow and My Name Is Red who has been facing charges of insulting "Turkishness" for talking critically about the country's treatment of Armenians and Kurds to a Swiss newspaper a year ago. Pressure from abroad and a need to conform to European Union legal standards played a major role in the decision, although less well-known Turks remain charged under the law.

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Cool idea of the day: On his Publishing Insider blog, HarperCollins's Carl Lennertz is searching for ideas for themed book displays in bookstores. Among examples: the Boulder Book Store's shelf of books with dates as the title, including 1421, 1491 and 1776, and a long-ago Barbara's display of books by long-dead authors with a sign saying, "Read 'em before you meet 'em." Ideas? Add 'em here.

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International Publishers Marketing, Dulles, Va., will distribute and market in North America the list of London publisher Beautiful Books. Founded in 2004 by Simon Petherick, who had been a publisher, author and marketer, Beautiful Books publishes children's and adult books and had not been distributed in the U.S. until now. Its program includes Sara Sharpe's Liontooth: The Story of a Garden; the interactive children's travel companion series, The Young Travellers Club; and the new horror fiction imprint, Bloody Books.

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The Roanoke Times looked at the new Meadowbrook Library in Shawsville, Va., "the first new library for the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library System in 30 years." The county paid for construction while the community, through yard sales, chili suppers, tournaments and other benefits, raised $300,000 for books, CDs, DVDs and other items.

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The Collegiate Times of Virginia Tech offered an update on the Easy Chair Bookstore, Blacksburg, Va., which Russell Chisholm, owner of the Easy Chair Coffee Shop, opened in late 2004 to "fill the independent void" created by the closing of Printer's Inc. earlier that year. Chisholm said that the new store is building relationships with school professors, holds four or five events a month and has instituted a frequent buyer plan.

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NACS's CM Bulletin reported on stores in a California community college district that are seeking to expand a textbook rental program--in part by soliciting private donations to fund the effort.

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Event of the day: The Newbery and Caldecott award winners will be announced this morning at the ALA midwinter conference.

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The Belleville News-Democrat noted the opening late last year of Treasures of the Kingdom, a Christian bookstore, in Fairview Heights, Ill., just east of St. Louis. Among other products for sale: "what looks like a cool board game, The Bibleman Adventure Game for $24.95."

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The San Diego Union-Tribune profiled the Encore Book Store, a used bookstore run by the Friends of the Vista Library in Vista, Calif., which accounts for 90% of the $47,000 that the Friends raise for the library every year.

William F. Reilly, a longtime publisher and former board member of Barnes&Noble.com, has been named to the board of Barnes & Noble.

In the 1980s, Reilly was president of Macmillan. In 1989, in partnership with Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., he founded and became chairman and CEO of Primedia, which bought and published an array of magazines, among other products. In 2001, Reilly founded and became CEO of Aurelian Communications. One of Aurelian's major purchases, made with Providence Equity Partners, was of F&W Publications, which they sold last year to Aubry Partners. Reilly was a board member of B&N.com from 1999 to 2004 during its existence as an independent company.

Reilly is also a member of the board of FMC Corp. and the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame.

This morning on the Today Show: Michael Eric Dyson, an ordained Baptist minister and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his new book, the first on the subject, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (Perseus, $23, 0465017614).

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This morning on Good Morning America, Norah Vincent shares experiences living as a man from her new book, Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back (Viking, $24.95, 0670034665).

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Batting cleanup today on the Diane Rehm Show, Henry Aaron (no, not Hank Aaron!), a Brookings Institute fellow, will talk about his new book, Can We Say No?: The Challenge of Rationing Health Care (Brookings Institution Press, $18.95, 0815701217).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes talks about his new book, Rebel-in-Chief: How George W. Bush Is Redefining the Conservative Movement and Transforming America (Crown, $23.95, 0307336492).

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On the occasion of the master's 250th birthday, yesterday on Weekend Edition conductor Jane Glover directed the conversation to her new book, Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music (HarperCollins, $27.95, 0060563508).

Look out, Oprah.

Osama bin Laden became an unlikely book promoter last week, when in his first public audio message aired in a year, in addition to widely reported threats and an offer of a truce, he said that it would be "useful" for Americans to read Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum (Common Courage, distributed by Consortium, paper $18.95, 1567513743, cloth $39.95, 1567513751). As a result, the book, in its third edition, has made a run up the bestseller lists, hitting No. 18 for Saturday and No. 13 for Sunday on Amazon.com and as high as No. 3 for part of the day yesterday on B&N.com.

"I was quite surprised and even shocked and amused when I found out what he'd said," Blum told Reuters. "If he shares with me a deep dislike for the certain aspects of U.S. foreign policy, then I'm not going to spurn any endorsement of the book by him. I think it's good that he shares those views, and I'm not turned off by that."

Bin Laden also quoted Blum, although, like some reviewers, he mangled matters. What he quoted did not come, as he stated, from the introduction to Rogue State but from back cover copy from another Blum book, Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire ($18.95, 1567513069). This title is also published by Common Courage, located in Monroe, Maine. What Bin Laden read quoted:

"If I were president, I would stop the attacks on the United States: First I would give an apology to all the widows and orphans and those who were tortured. Then I would announce that American interference in the nations of the world has ended once and for all."

Now if we could just find out what Kim Il Sung has on his bedside table.

And on the other side of the great divide, President Bush is reading and recommending Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (Knopf, $35, 0679422714), according to today's New York Times. Press secretary Scott McLellan said that Bush told him that the book "really shows how brutal a tyrant [Mao] was . . . much more brutal than people assumed." Published last fall, Mao was a gift from his wife, Laura.

Recently Bush has also reportedly read Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House by Patricia O'Toole and 1776 by David McCullough.

Appearing next Tuesday, January 31:

Gone by Lisa Gardner (Bantam, $25, 0553804316). Ex-cop and P.I. "Rainie" Conner is back--but gone missing. Rainie's estranged husband, a former FBI profiler, and their daughter, an FBI agent, join the hunt.

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Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn (Del Rey, $26.95, 0345456831). Star Wars. Enough said.

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The Good Life by Jay McInerny (Knopf, $25, 0375411402). Dulled lights, post-9/11 city. But true loves, better life. (Don't miss this: the Amazon.com exclusive review of this title is by James Frey.)

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Sinister Shorts by Perri O'Shaughnessy (Delacorte, $21, 0385337973). The first collection of short stories by the sister team best known for the Nina Reilly legal thrillers.

From last week's Book Sense bestseller lists, the following are the recommended titles:

Hardcover

Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris (Morrow, $24.95, 0060559144), "This may be Harris' best yet! A chess match of wits and psychology, this mystery is set at a posh, British private boys' school, where all is not what it seems. Just when you think you have it figured out, the author--as chess master--makes moves you didn't anticipate!"--Karen Vail, Armchair Bookstore, Dennis, Mass.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin, $28, 061834697X). "This is a wonderful history of the Dust Bowl in the 1920s and 1930s. Examining politics, the environment, and history, it is filled with eyewitness accounts that just seem unreal."--Nancy Brown, R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Conn.

Paperback

Toothpaste for Dinner by Drew (F&W, $9.99, 1581807864). "Internet phenomenon toothpastefordinner.com has brought crudely drawn but wickedly hilarious comics to a large and rabid fan base. Now we're lucky enough to have a compilation of the best of the website."--Violet Fox, Third Place Books, Lake Forest, Wash.

For Children to Age 8

Once Upon a Time, the End (Asleep in 60 Seconds) by Geoffrey Kloske, illustrated by Barry Blitt (Atheneum/Anne Schwartz, $15.95, 0689866194). "What a godsend for every tired parent who struggles to finish the mandatory bedtime story! Familiar tales are seriously condensed ('Small Girl, Red Hood'), and every story/rhyme/riddle has the same moral: Go to sleep. Silly fun for all, end of story."--Barb Bassett, The Red Balloon Bookshop, Saint Paul, Minn.

The School Is Not White!: A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Curtis James (Jump at the Sun, $16.99, 0786818387). "This true story of the Carter family's struggle to integrate a previously 'white' school is both touching and inspiring. Set in the mid-1960s, the book addresses topics of racial justice, equality, and steadfast determination with aplomb. Readers will appreciate not only the vital message, but also James' deft and beautiful illustrations."--Margarette Allen, LaDeDa Books, Manitowoc, Wis.

[Many thanks to Book Sense!]