Amazon has bought Lexcycle, the year-old company whose Stanza e-book reader is one of the most popular apps on the iPhone and offers some 100,000 books and periodicals.

Noting that Stanza uses the ePub format, the open e-book format that the Kindle does not support, the New York Times said, "The move indicates Amazon wants to consolidate its position on mobile devices, particularly within Apple's ecosystem, which may include a tablet computer later this year. The Lexcycle team should also help Amazon stake out ground on Google's Android phones, the Palm Pre and Windows Mobile devices--and perhaps eventually turn to more open e-reading formats."

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Expanding its e-presence, Barnes & Noble.com has launched an Audiobook MP3 Store, which offers audiobook MP3s for iPods, iPhones, MP3 players and other portable devices that play MP3 titles. The store opens with more than 10,000 titles in stock; the average price per download is $10-$20.

To promote the service, B&N.com is offering nine titles for free "for a limited time." In addition, customers can receive a 50% discount on any one title in the Audiobook MP3 Store with an online coupon available on Barnes & Noble.com through May 3.

In a statement, Tom Burke, executive v-p, e-commerce, at Barnes & Noble, called the new store "a natural progression in our commitment to book lovers and audiobook fans."

Audiobook sales have shifted increasingly from CDs to downloads, an area that is a specialty of Amazon.com's Audible unit.

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Urban Think!, Orlando, Fla., has opened a second store, Urban Think! Kids, which is in the College Park area and is "devoted to children, teenagers and parents," the Orlando Sentinel said.

Owners Bruce and Medea Harris said they hesitated to open the 1,000-sq.-ft. space "but when the space became available nearby Local Color Art Studio, a popular kids' spot, they decided to take advantage of the opportunity."

"Anything to do with children is close to my heart," Medea Harris told the Sentinel.

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West Point's bookstore has cancelled event scheduled for today featuring Lily Burana, whose memoir, I Love a Man in Uniform (Weinstein Books), is the story of "a former punk-rock stripper and her unlikely marriage to an officer in the U.S. Army," the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

Burana's husband is stationed at West Point, and the book is being sold in the store, but bookstore manager Agatha Gerardi said her supervisor canceled the book signing.

Burana, whose book tour includes military bases in Colorado and Washington State, told the Chronicle that she was "very sad" and "shocked" that the event was stripped from her schedule.

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Effective May 29, Frank McGuire is retiring as Southeastern sales rep for Pelican Publishing Company, where he has worked for 18 years. Before joining Pelican, he managed Siler's Bookstore in New Orleans, La., and was the Southeastern rep for Crown Publishing Group. He also managed Oxford Books in Atlanta, Ga., his own McGuire's Bookshop and created the prototype store for Chapter 11 bookstore chain.

One of McGuire's first retirement projects will be building a library to house his extensive book collection at his home in Gainesville, Ga. He may be reached at 770-535-6845 or mcguiref@charter.net.

Franklin Burroughs, author of Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay (Tilbury House), has won the John Burroughs Medal, which is awarded annually to "a book that combines scientific accuracy, firsthand fieldwork, and creative natural history writing in the United States." Burroughs accepted the Burroughs Award (the two Burroughs are not related) earlier this month at a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and is shown here with Heather Perry, photographer for Confluence. She is perhaps hoping to win a Perry Award.

Photograph: D. Finnin.

After Shannon Piserchio was laid off from her insurance job last year, she and her husband, Gary, a technical writer, decided to open their own business. When it came to determining a type of retail establishment, they found inspiration in the common interests that first drew them together: books and writing. "Any time we go somewhere, we always gravitate toward bookstores," said Piserchio. Two of their favorites are an ocean apart: Tattered Cover in their hometown of Denver, Colo., and Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, where they visited last year. "It was a really amazing experience, the whole vibe," said Piserchio. "We decided we wanted that."

The Piserchios' journey from patrons to the proprietors of their own Denver store, the Bookery Nook, was filled with suspense and serendipity. Shortly after they decided to proceed with the venture last September, "the bottom fell out of the economy," Piserchio said. "The bankers loved our business plan, but when it got to the underwriters' desks they wouldn't even consider funding a startup."

Undeterred, the couple found a storefront in north Denver. While researching the area, Gary came across an article about loans being offered by the city's Office of Economic Development to entrepreneurs looking to start or expand businesses in several targeted neighborhoods. The Tennyson Street storefront the Piserchios had found was in one of those areas, and their request for funding was granted. "It was really with their input and willingness to even give us a shot that we were able to make this happen," Pisercio said. "We're so grateful to the city of Denver for that."

The Piserchios transformed a former bike shop into the Bookery Nook, which opened on April 1. They did most of the renovations themselves and chronicled the endeavor on the store's website and Facebook page. The décor was inspired partly by another of Piserchio's favored Parisian establishments--a Christian Louboutin boutique. The same signature red hue on the soles of the designer shoe purveyor's footwear is used on lacquered display tables, the main door and awnings along the front of the store. The building's new street number was selected by the Piserchios after it was discovered that the city had retired the former digit. They chose 4280, a play on 5280, the altitude in feet of the Mile-High City and the name of a local magazine.

The Bookery Nook's 1,200 square feet of selling space currently stocks some 4,500 general interest titles. "We're staying flexible and listening to what the community needs and wants," said Piserchio. Along with books, customers are responding enthusiastically to paintings, jewelry and other works by local artists on display. "People are really in tune with the art in the store," she added. "We love that aspect of it."

Some 20% of the store is devoted to children's books and toys, and a weekly story hour for tots called "Tuesdays with Mommies" begins on May 12. Other events will include a visit from former Denver Broncos player and local sportscaster Reggie Rivers, who will discuss his book My Wife's Boyfriend & Our Feud with the Highlands Ranch Homeowners Association. Sports fans and customers with kids aren't the only ones welcome at the Bookery Nook. Those with canines are invited to bring their pets into the store, where dog treats await.

When it came to learning more about the industry, the aspiring booksellers turned to Colorado colleagues for advice, including Craig Morgan, the owner of Clear Creek Books in Golden. It was on Morgan's recommendation that Piserchio attended a training session with Paz & Associates earlier this year. Piserchio also found guidance in Rebel Bookseller: How to Improvise Your Own Indie Store and Beat Back the Chains by Andy Laties (Vox Pop). Her assessment? "It should be required reading for bookstore owners. It's fantastic."

The Bookery Nook's grand opening celebration is planned for mid-May with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and other festivities. Among the attendees will be councilman Rick Garcia, a strong supporter of local businesses, and possibly Denver's mayor, John Hickenlooper, who received an economic development loan when he founded Wynkoop Brewing Company. "We're really hoping that he has a soft spot for small businesses and that he'll come and bring some press to the event," Piserchio said.

The Bookery Nook's neighboring businesses include independently owned shops selling wine, clothing and other goods, art galleries and a historic theater, and businesses work together through a merchants association. An art walk takes place one evening a month. "It's a vibrant community," said Piserchio. "It's an artsy, bohemian, up-and-coming neighborhood. We absolutely love the area." So much so, in fact, that she and her husband might be making it more than just the site of their business. They're considering moving there.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

The Bookery Nook is located at 4280 Tennyson Street, Denver, Colo. 80212; 303-433-3439; thebookerynook.com.

Today on All Things Considered, discussing poetry for children in honor of National Poetry Month: Karen Jo Shapiro, author of I Must Go Down to the Beach Again (Charlesbridge Publishing, $5.95, 9781580891448/1580891446) and Because I Could Not Stop My Bike (Charlesbridge Publishing, $7.95, 9781580891059/1580891055).

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This evening on Al Jazeera English: Philip Alcabes, author of Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu (PublicAffairs, $26.95, 9781586486181/1586486187).

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Tomorrow on the Bonnie Hunt Show: Kristin Chenoweth, author of A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages (Touchstone, $25, 9781416580553/1416580557). She is also on Tavis Smiley tomorrow.

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals (Simon & Schuster, $21, 9780743270755/0743270754).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Rodale Books, $25.95, 9781605297859/1605297852).

To circumvent the Vatican's ban on filming in Rome's churches, cameramen working on Angels and Demons, which will be released next month, posed as tourists and used hidden cameras to shoot "more than 250,000 photographs and hours of video," the Guardian reported. They subsequently "used the surreptitiously-gathered material to digitally recreate many of the famous papal buildings, Tuscan colonnades, fountains and monuments within St. Peter's Square."

The deception was necessary because of the church's objections to the The Da Vinci Code. "Normally we read the script, but this time it was not necessary," said Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome. "The name Dan Brown was enough."

Selected new titles appearing on Tuesday, May 5:

Brimstone by Robert B. Parker (Putnam, $25.95, 9780399155710/0399155716) follows two mercenary gunmen on new adventures a year after cleaning up the Old West town of Resolution.

40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation by James Carville (Simon & Schuster, $24, 9781416569893/1416569898) is a Democratic pundit's prediction of Democratic political domination.

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Ace, $25.95, 9780441017157/0441017150) is book nine of the Sookie Stackhouse series, now an HBO series called True Blood.

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk (Doubleday, $24.95, 9780385526340/0385526342) follows an unusual terrorist group of foreign exchange students bent on unleashing their "Operation Havoc" on unwitting Americans.

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton (Scribner, $28, 9781416580515/1416580514) chronicles the efforts of Special Forces soldiers to seize a strategically important Taliban city via horseback.

Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio by Brian Jennings (Threshold, $24, 9781439154427/1439154422) views recent media ownership diversity legislation as a threat to free speech.

Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster (NAL, $24.95, 9780451226808/0451226801), the prequel to Bitter Is the New Black, looks at the author's life before becoming vice president at an investor relations firm.


Now in paperback:

Audition by Barbara Walters (Vintage, $15.95, 9780307279965/0307279960).

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by John Godey (Berkley, $9.99, 9780425228791/0425228797). The remake of the classic 1974 movie is being released in June.

The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story by Elliott West (Oxford University Press, $27.95, 9780195136753/0195136756, April 16, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

From the preface:

In late July 1877, about eight hundred Nez Perce Indians made their way in a long column up a steep and twisty trail into the Bitterroot Range of the northern Rocky Mountains. The column included what had been several villages--warriors, women, children, and elderly--as well as more than two thousand horses, dozens of dogs, and all that they would need to start their lives over. Just where that might be, or how long they might be there, they didn't know.

They were leaving home, eastward out of central Idaho toward Montana. Already they had fought two battles and several skirmishes with the U.S. army, and several more times over the next two months they would confront hundreds of troops pulled together from much of the northwestern quadrant of the nation. Their running would take the Nez Perces three times over the continental divide, through arid valleys and beds of lava, past geyser basins, along great rivers, and across the rolling, grassy expanse of the northern Great Plains. Their final goal was asylum beyond what they called the "medicine line," the international boundary with Canada. Some would make it. Most would be caught barely forty miles shy of the border.

All told, they would travel roughly fifteen hundred miles . . .

That remarkable odyssey alone makes the Nez Perce War one of the most compelling stories of nineteenth-century western history . . . It has a claim to being the nation's last Indian war. Looking back, tracing the long-running developments that led to it, we can learn plenty about how the young nation extended its control over Indian peoples, worked to undermine their material and spiritual ways of life, and sought to incorporate them into the growing republic. Looking ahead, we can see something of the fate of Indians after their final resistance.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl