Notes: Bookstore Changes; Injunction Denied in Oregon
Sadly we have to report that Under the Sycamore Tree, Grayslake, Ill., the children's bookstore that opened in late 2006, will close August 1. Owner Jackie Harris wrote that as "happens with many journeys, an unexpected turn or two in the road can come along, and such is the case with mine." She and her husband have decided to shut the store "because of some recent health concerns, combined with other factors. . . . I need to do what is best for my family.
Harris added, "I am looking forward to working myself back to good health, being more available to help structure a better school year for my children next year, and maybe even having some time to sit down with a good book or two!"
She thanked her staff and both "immediate and extended communities," including "all those bookstore friends who have dropped by just to converse or pay one compliment or another about the store."
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The Borders that will open in the Garden District of New Orleans, La., (Shelf Awareness, October 4, 2007) will be one of the company's new concept stores and will open in October, slightly earlier than previously expected.
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On Monday, the district court judge hearing the suit against Oregon's minors' access law denied the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction that would block enforcement of the law until a trial is held. Six Oregon booksellers, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and several other groups filed a suit against the law that makes it a felony to allow a minor under 13 to view or purchase a "sexually explicit" work (Shelf Awareness, April 24, 2008).
ABFFE president Chris Finan said that while the plaintiffs were disappointed in the judge's decision, they are glad that the judge set an early date for the trial, October 3.
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Bookstore owners in Aiken, S.C., told the Augusta Chronicle "they aren't concerned about Books-A-Million building a store at Aiken Mall."
"We
have tried and true customers who are looking for speciality books,"
said Meg Ferguson of the Book Stall. "We pride ourselves on carrying a
much wider selection, not just the New York Times best-sellers.
We know our clients personally. We've delivered books to people who are
sick or homebound, or we'll see books coming out that a customer would
like, and we'll call them up."
Fran Bush, owner of the
Booklovers Bookstore, added, "We have some of everything. Our used book
section is tremendous, and that's a lot of our trade. We're still going
to be here."
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Writing is hard, but autographing may be harder. USA Today reported that Janet Evanovich is wearing a brace on her right hand after a six-city tour to promote Fearless Fourteen.
"It's
at least 1,000 people at each signing, which goes on for at least five
hours, and they all have four or five books," she said. "The human
thumb is not designed to do that six days in a row."
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A rare first edition of Jane Austen's Emma sold for a record-breaking £180,000 (US$354,267) during an auction at Bonhams in London. According to the Guardian,
the "triple-decker edition was inscribed on behalf of Austen to her
close confidante, the governess Anne Sharp. One of only 12 presentation
copies printed, which otherwise went to family members and publisher
John Murray's contacts, it was the only one given to a friend of the
author."
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Lerner Publishing Group and USA Today have created a partnership to produce a program of new educational books for children and young adults. The first series will the USA Today Lifeline Biographies about both historical and popular "compelling" people mainly using USA Today material. The first four titles are Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey: Global Media Leader, Tiger Woods: Golf's Master and Vera Wang: Enduring Style. Future titles include biographies of presidents, Hollywood stars, and more.
Four titles will be available, too, from Lerner's Twenty-First Century Books division.
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Effective July 7, Felicia Frazier will become senior v-p, director of sales, for the Penguin Young Readers Group. Most recently she was v-p, sales director for national accounts, brand and category management, at Random House.
The company lauded Frazier's experience in sales and brand selling, in expanding sales at the chains and in directing the company's licensed program development with companies such as Disney and Nickelodeon, among other accomplishments. Her "sales management experience, along with her expertise in maximizing brand sales, will benefit the Young Readers Group greatly as Penguin Group (USA) moves forward in growing this important part of the Group," Penguin stated.
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May you be graced with a long train or plane ride (or just an uninterrupted day at the beach) with this book as your companion. Cashore sets her first novel in seven neighboring kingdoms where, on rare occasions, a child is born with two different-colored eyes and a "grace" that does not make itself manifest right away. For Katsa, niece to King Randa of the Middluns, her grace showed itself at age 8, when one of her uncle's guests placed his hand lustily on her leg. Meaning only to defend herself, Katsa killed him instead--to her horror and the king's delight. Now the king had a way to mete out punishment by sending his niece to call on his erring subjects or enemies. But Katsa, an orphan and an independent thinker who has never relied on anyone, despises her role, and forms a council together with her cousin, Prince Raffin, and several others, to carry out secret goodwill missions. It is on one of these missions that Katsa meets her match--physically and intellectually--Po, the graceling seventh son of King Ror of Lienid. The mystery of the kidnapped royal they save at the novel's start, and the adventure as they unravel it, clips along. But the heart of this tale rests on the relationship that emerges between Katsa and Po, and what they learn from each other, as two graceling fighters who become friends. Most people flee from Katsa; Po looks deeply into her mismatched eyes. Together they explore the furthest extent of their graces and begin to grow up. Cashore explores the yin and yang of life and death, freedom and belonging. Is Katsa's grace purely a gift for killing? How then does one explain her missions with the council, so life-affirming and just? What does it mean truly to know another being? Does love bind one being to another or does the abiding trust that comes with mature love allow each partner greater freedoms? With humor and insight, the author goes to the essence of what defines human beings and their relationships to one another. And as to teens for whom first love is all-consuming, she hits them right between the eyes.--