"The best thing about being a writer who works at a bookstore is that you're around people all day long who speak your language--whether it's the other booksellers or the customers. It really helps to have a community when you're a writer, and that bookstore was mine. It was because of that community that I was able to finish Rabbit Cake, and also because of the generous fellowship I had through the Associates of the Boston Public Library. I started the novel in my MFA program, but I finished it at the bookstore and at the library."

HarperCollins is launching a global campaign to celebrate the company's 200th anniversary; its centerpiece is a website that showcases the publisher's history.

The website includes images from the company's archives, short stories that illustrate significant moments in HarperCollins history, a timeline and the HarperCollins 200, "a global collection of 200 iconic HarperCollins titles--beloved books that have inspired, informed, entertained, and endured." The titles include Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.

In 1895, Mark Twain signs an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers.

In addition, the website will be a springboard for activities created by local teams around the world, including a campaign to support literacy and reading, charity projects, and an exhibition of historical items at the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New York City.

"We're excited to celebrate this milestone anniversary and give thanks to the employees, authors, librarians, booksellers, and consumers who've been instrumental in helping HarperCollins become a part of the global literary culture over the last 200 years," CEO Brian Murray said. "Our goal today is unchanged from what our founders set out to achieve two centuries ago--to help authors and their works reach their fullest potential and widest readership. We hope to continue to entertain, educate, and inspire generations of readers for centuries to come."

Robert Thomson, CEO of parent company News Corp., added: "We are proud of the provenance of HarperCollins and the works of our great writers and editors that have echoed through the centuries and will resonate for centuries to come. For HarperCollins, the past is a prelude to a profoundly successful future."

Books-A-Million and the Laredo, Tex., Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening last week for a new 2nd & Charles store at 5410 San Bernardo Avenue, the Morning Times reported. The 2nd & Charles chain buys and sells new and used books, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays, video games, game systems, vinyl records, comic books, electronics, toys, collectibles and other items.

"Laredo reads. We are a literary city," said general manager Jessie Hernandez. In November, BAM expanded its location at the city's Mall del Norte. "We are very excited about the future," Hernandez added. "It's a historic moment because it's now official, two bookstores. A lot can happen in a matter of months."

Effective May 1, Brave New Books, Austin, Tex., has to move from its location at 1904 Guadalupe St. and is now exploring options. "With our lease coming up at the end of April, the building's landlord has decided to lease the space to a different tenant," store manager John Bush wrote in a message to customers.

"We are weighing all of our options and soon will be sending out a survey and hosting a community meeting so you can take part in determining our next move," he continued. "Catherine, the rest of the team, and myself are looking at this change as a welcome opportunity to bring Brave out of the basement and above ground in to the light. We have experienced a massive growth in customer base and revenue in the past several months and intend to use this opportunity to grow our momentum and reach even more people with the message of freedom, decentralization and healthy living."

Weldon Owen, a division of Bonnier Publishing USA, has created Blue Streak Books, a gift book and stationery line that will focus on popular culture, entertainment and style. Blue Streak Books will launch this spring and be headed by industry veteran and associate publisher Chris Navratil. The line's first title is Grandmother's Journal: Memories and Keepsakes for My Grandchild, an illustrated gift book that will be published on April 4.

In addition to decorative and functional gift and stationery titles, Blue Streak Books will offer branded and licensed books, including TV tie-ins with Ink Master and RuPaul's Drag Race. Blue Streak Books will publish approximately 25 illustrated titles for the global market annually and be distributed in North America by Simon & Schuster.

Weldon Owen president and publisher Roger Shaw commented: "There's a real opportunity right now for a well-produced publishing program of ground-breaking, trend-driven, and quick-to-market books. We're delighted to have Chris' creative energy behind Blue Streak Books, and know we will benefit greatly from his market knowledge, deep experience of specialty sales channels, and strong collaborative partnerships in our industry. Blue Streak Books provides a perfect complement to Weldon Owen's existing list and is destined to be a significant growth vehicle for us."

Last Thursday, March 2, the American Booksellers Association's e-newsletter edition of the Indie Next List for March was delivered to more than a third of a million of the country's best book readers. The newsletter was sent to customers of 98 independent bookstores, with a combined total of 397,000 subscribers.

The e-newsletter, powered by Shelf Awareness, features all of the month's Indie Next List titles, with bookseller quotes and "buy now" buttons that lead directly to the purchase page for the title on the sending store's website. The newsletter, which is branded with each store's logo, also includes an interview (from Bookselling This Week) with the author whose book was chosen by booksellers as the number-one Indie Next List pick for the month, in this case Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead Books).

For a sample of the March newsletter, see this one from Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kan., which just began sending the e-version of the Indie Next List.

"Much-loved" illustrator Jane Eccles died February 27. The Bookseller reported that Macmillan Children's Books paid tribute to her, noting that Eccles earned her degree in graphic design at the Chelsea School of Art before beginning her career in illustration while working part-time for Waterstones. She went on to work in "all areas in the world of illustration" for a number of publishers in addition to Macmillan's, including Scholastic, Franklin Watts, Child's Play and A&C Black. Eccles wrote and illustrated her own book, Maxwell Monster, in 1991.

A Macmillan spokesperson said: "Her output as an illustrator showed an incredible breadth of talent, and she brought warmth and humor to every project."

Gaby Morgan, the publisher's editorial director who worked with Eccles on several titles, said: "I worked with her for 23 years and she was an incredible colleague and a good friend. She brought such life and wit to the books she illustrated and always understood what a book needed. I will miss her terribly."

photo: Nancy Glickman

Copperfish Books, Punta Gorda, Fla., hosted the launch of local author Robert Macomber's An Honorable War: The Spanish-American War Begins (Pineapple Press). It's the 13th book in his Honor series, which follows the career of Peter Wake, an officer in the U.S. Navy, and begins at the start of the Civil War. 

Congratulations to Dorothy Massey, owner of Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse, Santa Fe, N.Mex., who last Thursday was honored with a certificate of appreciation at the inaugural New Mexico Writers Dinner, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The event raised $5,000 for a new scholarship to help a New Mexico resident obtain "instruction in the literary arts."

Coinciding with the release of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (Knopf) tomorrow, March 7, and International Women's Day on March 8, Penguin Random House is launching a social media campaign called #WeShouldAllBeFeminists. The campaign calls for people to take and share photos of themselves and friends with posters featuring quotes from Dear Ijeawele on social media with the hashtag #WeShouldAllBeFeminists.

Dear Ijeawele is framed as a response to a letter Adichie received from a childhood friend a few years ago; the friend asked how she could raise her infant daughter as a feminist. Quotes from the book include: " 'Because you are a girl' is never a reason for anything. Ever."; "Femininity and feminism are not mutually exclusive"; and "When there is true equality, resentment doesn't exist."

After his February 28 event at Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo., for The Elephants in My Backyard, author Rajiv Surendra designed and decorated a message for the bookstore's sidewalk sandwich boards.

On Facebook, Left Bank Books posted: "Thank you, Rajiv Surendra, for last night's wonderful discussion of THE ELEPHANTS IN MY BACKYARD... and for making our chalkboards beautiful!"

At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers:

Jenny Choy has been promoted to associate director, school & library marketing. She was most recently senior manager.

Kristina Pisciotta has been promoted to publicity manager. She was most recently senior publicist.

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At Chronicle Books:

Ashley Despain has joined the company as associate production developer, children's. Previously he was a children's book buyer at Green Apple Books.

Sarah Lin Go has been promoted to marketing and publicity associate manager, art, stationery and formats. Previously she was the publicity coordinator.

Good Morning, Superman! by Michael Dahl (Capstone Young Readers).

Today:
Good Morning America: Stacey Griffith, author of Two Turns from Zero: Pushing to Higher Fitness Goals--Converting Them to Life Strength (Morrow, $27.99, 9780062496843).

Also on GMA: Suze Yalof Schwartz, co-author of Unplug: A Simple Guide to Meditation for Busy Skeptics and Modern Soul Seekers (Harmony, $22.99, 9781101905364). She will also appear on Today.

Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria: Tony Robbins, author of Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781501164583).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Anderson Cooper, co-author of The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss (Harper Paperbacks, $15.99, 9780062454959). He will also appear tomorrow on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Also on the Late Show: Michael V. Hayden, author of Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror (Penguin Books, $17, 9780143109983).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Maddie Ziegler, author of The Maddie Diaries: A Memoir (Gallery, $21.99, 9781501150661). She will also appear on Nightline.

SiriusXM's Sandra Bernhard: Joan Juliet Buck, author of The Price of Illusion: A Memoir (Atria, $30, 9781476762944).

CNBC's Closing Bell: Daniel Barbarisi, author of Dueling with Kings: High Stakes, Killer Sharks, and the Get-Rich Promise of Daily Fantasy Sports (Touchstone, $26.99, 9781501146176).

Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Productions (The Lincoln Lawyer, Jane Got a Gun, Love in the Time of Cholera) "have won a competitive auction for movie rights" to Lidia Yuknavitch's sci-fi novel The Book of Joan, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The book will be published April 18 by Harper.

"Lidia has created some of the most dynamic, iconic female protagonists I have ever read and the novel couldn't be more timely," Steindorf said.

Stone Village also recently acquired Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and B.A. Paris's thriller Behind Closed Doors, which will be adapted into a film written by Melissa London Hilfers.

Winners were announced for the Academy of British Cover Design Awards, "with Vintage creative director Suzanne Dean and Simon & Schuster's Jack Smyth taking home two awards apiece," the Bookseller reported. The ABCD prize honors covers produced for any book published between January 1 and December 31 2016 by any designer based in the U.K., for a U.K. or overseas publisher. See the winners here.

The essays in The Songs of Trees by David Haskell are contemplative, lyrical and filled with insights on nature that come from years of dedicated observation. Haskell has a deep understanding of the complexities of nature and the interconnectedness of living things. These relationships can be seen through the interactions of a variety of trees around the globe with the birds, insects, animals, air, water and soil that surround them. His descriptions at times are like eulogies to dying trees that have fallen due to an encroaching sea, and at others something akin to the notes an oenologist might write for a fine wine:

"The golden sap between dark plates of ponderosa bark has the vigorous odor of rosin and turpentine: oily, acidic, and bright. But unlike the aggressive, spiky odor of other pines, ponderosa's aroma has smooth, sweet edges. A hint of vanilla or buttery sugar mingles in the resin. Attentive human noses, and perhaps the tongues of woodpeckers, know that the nasal tone of ponderosa varies geographically, faint in the Northern Rocky Mountains, stronger, with a twist of lemon rind, along the Pacific coast."

Haskell studies the various microcosmic layers of plants, insects and water among the branches and leaves of a giant ceibo tree deep in the Amazon jungle. He listens to the rain as it falls on orchids, bromeliads, strangler figs and philodendron leaves, and hears hundreds of bats, the croak of frogs, the squawk of scarlet macaws and the call of howler monkeys from high in the upper branches where the energy is vibratory and intense. He analyzes the complexity of fungi found in the roots of a balsam fir, and the role chickadees and other birds play in spreading the tree's seeds. He also examines the effect sound has on a small pear tree planted in a tiny patch of earth on a street in Manhattan. In Jerusalem, he investigates the ancient process of growing olives for oil while contemplating the tumultuous history of the region, and on Miyajima Island, Japan, he waxes poetic on the age-old process of raising bonsai trees and ponders boundaries between "humanity, the spirit world, and 'nature.' "

Throughout his observations on 12 species of trees, he deftly interweaves a deeper and broader scope, one of history, war, climate change, industrialization--the latter of which is threatening not just to these trees, but to all living things that share this planet. If anyone ever doubted that life is dependent on symbiotic relationships, then reading Haskell's The Songs of Trees will change that opinion forever. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

Shelf Talker: Vibrant and poetic essays on the complexity of life found in the ecosystems of a dozen species of trees around the world.