Len Vlahos has been appointed the American Booksellers Association's new chief operating officer, filling the position that was vacated when Oren Teicher was promoted to chief executive officer, according to Bookselling This Week.

"In his tenure here at ABA, Len has performed with enormous care and skill on projects as varied as the association's start-up of BookSense.com to invigorating our education programs," Teicher said. "Len's in-depth knowledge and deep understanding of the wide variety of issues facing indie booksellers make him the obvious choice to become ABA's new COO. I could not be more delighted that he has accepted this new challenge, and that he and I will be able to continue working closely together."

"I'm honored and thrilled about this opportunity," Vlahos said. "I consider myself very fortunate to be able to work on behalf of independent bookstores. The mission of ABA is critically important to our culture and our local economies. I'm also delighted to be working for and with Oren. I've learned a tremendous amount from him during my time at ABA, and only hope that I bring the same professionalism and acumen to the position of COO that he did."

BTW reported that, as COO, "Vlahos will serve as the deputy executive, and, under the direction of Teicher, will have overall responsibility for daily operational issues. He will continue to directly oversee the association's education program, e-commerce program, and will serve as ABA's point person on digital initiatives."

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Simon & Schuster has reached an agreement to sell nearly 5,000 e-book titles through the online document sharing service Scribd, starting today, including works by Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark.

The Wall Street Journal reported that S&S books "sold on the Scribd site can be read on a computer and saved as Adobe Acrobat files but can't be printed. The company says those Acrobat files can be read on Sony Corp.'s e-book Reader, but not on Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle e-book reader, which uses a different format. Scribd plans to soon release software that will enable the Scribd-purchased books to be read on Apple Inc.'s iPhone."

"It means new revenue on the sales side and lets us experiment with various pricing models," said Ellie Hirschhorn, chief digital officer at S&S. "[Scribd has] a large audience, which is important to us, and they've made an effort to install anti-piracy measures." According to the Journal, "several thousand" S&S titles "that haven't yet been published as e-books will be available for preview on Scribd via a search-and-browse option."

"This is a major public endorsement by a major force in the publishing industry," Trip Adler, Scribd's co-founder, told the Associated Press. "This is a great way for Simon & Schuster to protect its copyright and to sell to the online community."

The AP reported that "a leading critic of Scribd, the Hachette Book Group, also may sell works through the online store. 'Because Scribd has been responsive to our concerns, we're open to selling our e-books on Scribd,' said Sophie Cottrell, a vice-president with Hachette, which in May singled out the company for having 'an alarming number of unauthorized book titles on its site.'"

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Google update: A lawyer for Google confirmed that the company had received a CID [civil investigative demand] from U.S. Justice Department antitrust authorities for information about its settlement with authors and publishers (Shelf Awareness, June 10, 2009).

The Wall Street Journal reported that "David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said the company was 'in the process' of responding to the Justice Department's request and said antitrust regulators 'are generally trying to understand the settlement.'"

"We expect that the settlement is going to be approved," he said. Drummond "also added that the company had no plans to renegotiate the deal," the Journal noted.

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Babylon Falling bookstore, San Francisco, Calif., will close June 18, but owner Sean Stewart offered some final thoughts about the future of bookselling in a June 11 blog post marking the shop's second anniversary.

"My worry for the future of bookselling is not what people are buying or even the amount they are buying, but rather how they are buying," wrote Stewart. "The idea of the bookseller in a curatorial role as a member of the community seems to be completely foreign to a culture that demands convenience above all else."

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A blog paean to the "chairs of Lemuria" was sung by Lemuria Bookstore, Jackson, Miss.: "People rave about our first edition copies, our signed books and our classic hardcovers and paperbacks. People love the signed photos of authors, the cozy nooks and the kooky reading glasses. But one thing no one talks about is our chairs. The time has come to break the silence. The chairs at Lemuria are one of the most important parts of the store."

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The Red Canoe Bookstore Café, Baltimore, Md., "was originally intended to be a children-focused bookstore that incidentally sold coffee and maybe some muffins," co-owner Nicole Selhorst told the Sun, which reviewed the café and observed that "this place makes the best sweet and savory muffins I think I've ever had. Really, really great muffins."

"By all accounts, Red Canoe has succeeded in its core mission, which includes expanding literacy and building community," the Sun added. "It turned out, though, that every little thing Peter Selhorst made, the customers loved a lot, and gradually, the cafe operations expanded--it now serves breakfast and lunch seven days a week."

The reviewer closed by noting: "I wanted to talk more about the cafe, but in a way, I'm glad I've run out of room. I like how the cafe, wonderful as it is, fits into a bigger picture."

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Andrew Nelson, a bookseller at his family-owned Chestnut Hill Books, New Bedford, Mass., is the featured contestant on ABC's Who Wants to Be A Millionaire this week. The show was taped last August in New York. "How did the local player make out?" asked SouthCoast Today. "You'll have to tune in to find out."

"I had to sign a multi-page contract swearing me to secrecy," he said.

During April, bookstore sales fell 2.5% to $969 million--down for the third month in a row this year--according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales dropped 3.8% to $5.210 billion.

By comparison, total retail sales in April dropped 10.5% to $297.944 billion compared to the same period a year ago. For the year to date, total retail sales were down 11.3% to $1,139.9 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.

Logan and Noah Miller, authors of Either You're In or You're In the Way: Two Brothers, Twelve Months, and One Filmmaking Hell-Ride to Keep a Promise to Their Father (Harper, $26.99, 9780061763144/0061763144), with the staff of Rakestraw Books, Danville, Calif., at an appearance last month. More than 100 people attended an evening of books and film (four high school student-made short films as well as scenes from Touching Home, the Logan brothers' film). The event raised $500 for film education programs in local schools. From l. to r., front row: Logan and Noah Miller; back row: Cameron DePaoli, Drew Hendrickson, Julie Barnard, Loucy DeAtley, Michael Barnard.

Tomorrow on NPR's Weekend Edition: Jason Kersten, author of The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter (Gotham, $26, 9781592404469/1592404464).

The 12-episode second season of HBO's True Blood, based on the series by Charlaine Harris "about vampires gingerly entering society after the discovery of synthetic blood eliminates the need--if not always the desire--to feed on humans," debuts this Sunday. According to USA Today, "Season 2 roughly follows Harris's second Sookie Stackhouse novel, Living Dead in Dallas."

Harris, who loved the first season, noted that her readers are quick to express their opinions: "A certain percentage believe the show is pornographic. A huger percentage love it and are very anxious for their favorite scenes from the books to be re-created in the show."

Lance Armstrong's dramatic comeback from cancer to win seven straight Tour de France races has long seemed like the stuff of movies, and the Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog reported that finally the "long-gestating Columbia project has brought on a writer well-versed in sports comeback stories and could shoot as early as next year, according to producer Frank Marshall. Gary Ross, who wrote and directed multiple-Oscar nominee Seabiscuit, has been hired to pen the Armstrong script." It will be based on Armstrong’s first book, It’s Not About the Bike, which he wrote with Sally Jenkins.

The film's development "has faced more obstacles than a long-distance bike race," according to Risky Business, which noted that it was "Armstrong’s unlikely attempt to come out of retirement this year to try to win a record eighth title that helped kick-start the project. 'We got inspired by his comeback, and we were able to (get going again),' Marshall said."

Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas won the €100,000 (US$141,400) International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest literary prize. The Guardian reported that "the winning novel, first published by Grove Atlantic, USA, and a New York Times top ten book of 2007, was chosen from a shortlist of eight, which included novels from the USA, France, India, Pakistan and Norway." The book, which was published in the U.K. this year, emerged "from an international longlist of 147 titles, nominated by libraries around the world."

I'm stunned," said Thomas. "I had a hard time believing I'd made the shortlist--or the longlist, for that matter--so I'm still waiting for the punch line."

The judging panel observed: "We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas' masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. He lingers because this extraordinary novel comes to us from a writer of enthralling voice and startling insight. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, the winner . . . is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.”

The shortlist included The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen, Ravel by Jean Echenoz, Animal's People by Indra Sinha, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland and The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt.

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The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama won the £5,000 (US$8,298) Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. The Guardian reported that Zama, an IT director for an investment bank who wrote his book while riding on the train to work, "is the first man to win the award, and was the only male author on a shortlist of six."

"It's a little bit unusual that a man is writing in this genre," said Zama. "But my book is not a typical chick lit book. It's set in India, and deals with reasonably serious topics--but at heart it is a romantic novel. . . . In England at the moment there is a big divide between literary fiction and popular fiction. The fact that so many people do read for escape is an important factor that needs to be recognized. It doesn't mean that because something is comedy romance that the writing can't be good, or that deeper topics can't be addressed. It's just a matter of finding the balance."

The other shortlisted books were The Secret Shopper's Revenge by Kate Harrison, Bridesmaids by Jane Costello, Recipe for Disaster by Miriam Morrison, A Winter's Tale by Trisha Ashley and The Importance of Being Emma by Juliet Archer.

James Rollins is the author of the Sigma Force thrillers, the most recent of which is The Doomsday Key, which will be published by HarperCollins on June 23. He is also the author of the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five adventure thrillers and his first YA adventure, Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow. Rollins, a former veterinarian, can often be found underground or underwater as an amateur spelunker and scuba diver. He and his two- and four-legged family members live amid chew toys and paleontological treasures in Northern California.

On your nightstand now: 

The Swarm by Frank Schatzing, which deals with an oceanic intelligence that runs amok, and Daemon by Daniel Suarez, which deals with a computerized intelligence that runs amok. Simple enough solution. Throw the computer into the ocean. Snap, crackle, pop. Both are destroyed.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As a kid, I had a T-shirt made that read "Keep on Tolkien." Yes, I was that much of a geek. 

Your top five authors:

Michael Crichton, Stephen King, Clive Cussler, George R.R. Martin--and I can't fail to mention the most influential author to my own career, Kenneth Robeson (the pseudonym for the set of authors who penned the old pulp serial novels from the '30s and '40s, Doc Savage). I have all 182 Doc Savage novels in my library.  Yes, I'm still that much of a geek.

Book you've faked reading:

Moby Dick by Melville. Give me Benchley's Jaws any time.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. It's simply the most horrifying and shocking novel I've ever read. If you want a good scare, pick up this sorely under-appreciated book (see, still proselytizing).  

Book you've bought for the cover:
 
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I don't know if it was the quirky title or the upside-down dog on the singularly red cover, but I had to buy it. Then it became a huge bestseller. I think my one sale helped put him over the edge.

Book that changed your life:

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. Her free-wheeling use of vocabulary and grammar loosened something inside me that made me a better writer. In fact, good enough to get published for the first time. 

Favorite line from a book:

The opening line from Steel Beach by John Varley: "In five years, the penis will be obsolete." Just out of personal concern, I had to keep reading.

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

I think I have to go back to The Lord of the Rings. I still remember being lost in that world and never wanting to leave. I've re-read the books many times, but nothing ever comes close to that first trek through Middle Earth.

"Everyone remembered the night Brandon Vanderkool flew across the Crawfords' snowfield and tackled the Prince and Princess of Nowhere." Jim Lynch's new novel opens with Brandon, a newly-appointed border patrolman, scanning the terrain of the Washington State-British Columbia "nonchalant border" for anything that didn't belong (and then tackling it). Six feet eight, with a "lopsided smile and defiant wedge of hair," he's getting paid for doing what he's always loved doing--looking closely at his world, where he compulsively counts birds and creates art à la Andy Goldsworthy. He thinks in pictures; because of the way he sees, he has an uncanny knack for finding smugglers. Brandon's job with the BP was his father's idea to get him off their dairy farm and into interaction with people. Traveling beyond the farmlands nestled between the mountains and the inland sea disorients him, and he struggles with conversation, trying to "learn the language between and beneath the words that everyone else played off."

The Canadians and Americans were friendly neighbors, until recently. Young Canadians stacked "trophy homes on abrupt hills with imperial views of America," and there's a feeling that most this wealth is due to pot growing and alien smuggling. Add to that security concerns after 9/11, and "spontaneity had up and left the valley." The people who inhabit this border area are crazy, sad, funny and sometimes desperate. Brandon's father, Norm, is a dairy farmer who is building a sailboat in the back barn, while his wife is losing her mind, a third of his herd is too sick to milk and he worries that the sailboat will never get to the sea. He wonders what it would feel like to not second-guess himself at 3:15 every morning, and asks, "How do you give upon cows that haven't given up on you?"

Madeline Rousseau is the object of Brandon's unrequited desire; her father, retired Canadian professor Wayne Rousseau, having been diagnosed with MS, self-medicates with pot and is obsessed with recreating past scientific breakthroughs like gunpowder or the compass. Madeline has a job harvesting pot plants--better pay than the nursery--while Wayne daydreams that he might be remembered for his ability to elucidate American hubris and hypocrisy.

Then there is Brandon's mother, Jeannette, who has early Alzheimer's; Sophie, the massage therapist who is filming and interviewing everyone in the valley; Korean hookers caught on the tideflats; angry Chinese women hiding under a fish truck and a "van full of scared aliens huddled like chickadees trying to keep warm in a birdhouse"; zany border patrollers; fifth-grade math teachers, principals and raspberry farmers, many of whom are smuggling both pot and people. And cows: "How could anyone be cruel to animals that were powerful enough to walk through walls yet hated to be alone and balked at stepping over hoses, puddles or even a bright line of paint?"

In Border Songs, Jim Lynch does for birds and the northwestern border what he did for sea creatures and south Puget Sound in his lovely The Highest Tide; he has an equal affinity for showing us the beauty and humor of humanity. The illusory security of the border reminds us that our lives are also fragile, but Lynch has crafted a story of love, redemption and acceptance that reminds us of what is true and strong.--Marilyn Dahl

Shelf Talker: A lyrical, quirky novel about love and loyalty, and birds and cows, set on the "handshake" border of Canada and the U.S.

It's been almost two weeks since the last booth was dismantled. BookExpo America 2009 has been praised and scorned, dissected and trisected, analyzed and psychoanalyzed by book trade pundits in both public and private conversations, online and offline. Is there anything left to say?

Well, I noticed that many indie booksellers offered their own responses to the show, posted on store and personal blogs, and in e-mail newsletters for their customers to read. That thought re-fired my BEA analysis jets and caused me to wonder: What do you tell your customers about BEA?

In an e-mail newsletter from the Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis., Rebecca Rick noted that "Lanora, Dave, Taylor and I are mostly recovered from BEA 09 in New York this past weekend and we are excited to tell you all about it. (We would like to once again thank the generous customer who donated his frequent flyer miles to get us there.) Though the show was, by many accounts, a leaner show than in the past--meaning, not as many giveaways or galleys piled up everywhere--there was no shortage of fantastic books for fall, entertaining authors giving talks, and inspiration for us. We are all happy that we were able to go and come back with so many new ideas and information to share with you!"

"It was, if I've counted correctly, the 28th time we've attended our national convention and trade show," wrote Chuck Robinson on the store blog for Village Books, Bellingham, Wash. "So, wouldn't you think it would have become old hat? Why does my heart still race and why am I so excited each year? Well, in reflecting on who we saw and heard talk, I realize it is somewhat rarefied air we breathe at these events. . . . I'm always refreshed and renewed when I come home from BookExpo America. And, this year is no exception."

Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands bookstore, Tempe, Ariz., writing to "Bookstore Friends" in her e-mail newsletter, called the show "bittersweet" because her six-year tenure on the ABA board came to an end along with her term as president. For her, "the joy of the annual trade show is keeping in touch with my bookseller friends and connecting with authors. . . . They reminded me how much I love their writing and how lucky I am to be in this business of bringing words, ideas, and books to our community."

Green Apple Books & Music, San Francisco, Calif., reported on its Green Apple Core blog that "the first day is always remainder buying day; this involves jumping from hotel to hotel & to showrooms . . . many of which aren't always close together. We saw a lot of books & there will be some great remainder deals coming to you in the next month or so (to go along with the already great titles in the store currently) so be sure to check out the tables."

In a detailed account on his Kash's Book Corner blog, Arsen Kashkashian of Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, Colo., shared his impressions of BEA, concluding, "I hope that BEA can morph into something meaningful for publishers, authors and booksellers. There must be a way to communicate with each other, to wow each other that doesn't involve cheap Ikea-looking furniture. I think the dinners are valuable, the chance to meet authors is valuable, the empty booths are not. Something is going to change, because those vacant booths cost a lot of money."

Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of McNally Jackson Books in New York (and her own Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn later this year) observed on her Written Nerd blog: "Maybe I'm just lucky. But this was the best BEA I've ever attended." She praised her book world colleagues as "people who are passionate about what they do, creative and energetic beyond belief, and awfully fun to be around. I have a sense that they're the ones I'll still be talking to in twenty years, through all the changes of our industry and our careers. Maybe we'll look back on this BEA as one of the last good ones, or as a quiet moment before things got big again, or as the beginning of a long-term change for the better. All I know now is that it was a hell of a show."

What did you tell your customers about the show this year?--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)