Darlings, anyone who has any interest in Truman Capote, In Cold Blood,
Harper Lee, the beginning of fictional nonfiction, an amazing
performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, to name just a few of many
reasons, should see the film Capote, which is slowly appearing
in more theaters after its initial limited release. Capote may be one of
the best movies made about writing--and that's just one aspect of it.
Capote is based, of course, on Gerald Clarke's biography. According to USA Today, Carroll & Graf has 30,000 copies of the tie-in edition in print. And Vintage has gone to press three times for the tie-in edition of In Cold Blood.
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The Chicago Sun-Times investigates the unhealthy state of two Chicago New Age retailers, including Transitions Bookplace, which filed for Chapter 11 last month. Founded in 1994, Transitions is "asking its customers to forgo the lure of a discount and instead put their book-buying dollars to work in their store." The major problem for the store is a combined monthly rent of $23,000 on the store space and its Learning Center. Transitions also spent $150,000 rehabbing space in Unity Church, but has not attracted as many people there as it hoped.
Howard Mandel, who owns the store with his wife, Gayle Seminara Mandel, told the paper that "vendors have been asking, 'Why didn't you tell us?' Unexpected doors have opened for them, and some vendors are providing special financing to help stock for Christmas."
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We want to wish Larry Kirshbaum well and congratulate David Young and Maureen Egen as Kirshbaum officially hands over the reins tomorrow at Time Warner Book Group. Young becomes chairman and CEO, and Egen is now deputy chairman and publisher. Kirshbaum will be a consultant and maintain an office at Time Warner until Thanksgiving.
Kirshbaum has been a creative, energetic and enthusiastic publisher who valued all bookselling channels and had many supportive, interesting ideas for getting books to readers. We wish him well in his new career as a literary agent.
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Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large at PublicAffairs, has met with ABA staff to discuss his plans to investigate ways of improving book distribution (Shelf Awareness, August 19). For more, see Bookselling This Week's coverage, which notes that the project will be based at the University of North Carolina Press and include Yale University Press and several other not-for-profit publishers.
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The Newark Star-Ledger sizes up the new $35 million College of New Jersey library in Ewing, N.J., which exemplifies the "library as place." This place features nooks and lounges that can seat 1,200; couches and armchairs with ottomans; 25 group study rooms with marker boards; two computer labs and a 105-person auditorium with grand piano. A Starbucks will open in the lobby next semester.
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Customers of the Chapter 11 in Norcross, Ga., are taking the store's closing particularly hard, perhaps harder than customers at the other five Chapter 11 outlets that are closing, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post. The Norcross store was the one that, after public demand, replaced a closed Waldenbooks two years ago.
"This is my neighborhood. I feel very strongly about having a neighborhood bookstore here," assistant manager George Scott told the paper. "These customers have enriched my life. How many places can you work where every customer knows your name?" Scott has been offered a job at another Chapter 11 but doesn't know if he will accept it.
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An appearance by Joel Osteen, the televangelist and author of Your Best Life Now, at a Borders in Auburn Hills, Mich., drew more customers and energy than any other author or event--even Harry Potter--general manager Todd Allen told the Detroit News. "It was almost like he was a pop star, not a minister," Allen continued. The crowd was "crying, hyperventilating. They got a glimpse of him and went crazy. That part was really unexpected."
---
The Chattanoogan blesses the new building housing the Central Baptist Church in Hixson, Tenn., called Abba's House (Abba is Aramaic for father), which will include the Abba's House Bookstore and Cafe "offering a full-service Christian bookstore for the community and serving Greyfriar's coffee. Plans include the offering of essential Christian literature, gift items and inspiring worship CDs, and will open to the community in December with ongoing weekday store hours."
---
Metro Santa Cruz sheds light on the Rolling Darkness Revue, a troupe that features authors Glen Hirshberg and Pete Atkins and tells ghost stories. On Friday, the pair was joined by several local writers and musicians in a performance at the Capitola Book Café in Capitola, Calif.
"The idea was always to go and light a metaphorical campfire at the neighborhood bookstore," Hirshberg told the paper, "and then using your voice and your words and some man-made fog if we could find some--see if we could cast this kind of spell."
Capote is based, of course, on Gerald Clarke's biography. According to USA Today, Carroll & Graf has 30,000 copies of the tie-in edition in print. And Vintage has gone to press three times for the tie-in edition of In Cold Blood.
---
The Chicago Sun-Times investigates the unhealthy state of two Chicago New Age retailers, including Transitions Bookplace, which filed for Chapter 11 last month. Founded in 1994, Transitions is "asking its customers to forgo the lure of a discount and instead put their book-buying dollars to work in their store." The major problem for the store is a combined monthly rent of $23,000 on the store space and its Learning Center. Transitions also spent $150,000 rehabbing space in Unity Church, but has not attracted as many people there as it hoped.
Howard Mandel, who owns the store with his wife, Gayle Seminara Mandel, told the paper that "vendors have been asking, 'Why didn't you tell us?' Unexpected doors have opened for them, and some vendors are providing special financing to help stock for Christmas."
---
We want to wish Larry Kirshbaum well and congratulate David Young and Maureen Egen as Kirshbaum officially hands over the reins tomorrow at Time Warner Book Group. Young becomes chairman and CEO, and Egen is now deputy chairman and publisher. Kirshbaum will be a consultant and maintain an office at Time Warner until Thanksgiving.
Kirshbaum has been a creative, energetic and enthusiastic publisher who valued all bookselling channels and had many supportive, interesting ideas for getting books to readers. We wish him well in his new career as a literary agent.
---
Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large at PublicAffairs, has met with ABA staff to discuss his plans to investigate ways of improving book distribution (Shelf Awareness, August 19). For more, see Bookselling This Week's coverage, which notes that the project will be based at the University of North Carolina Press and include Yale University Press and several other not-for-profit publishers.
---
The Newark Star-Ledger sizes up the new $35 million College of New Jersey library in Ewing, N.J., which exemplifies the "library as place." This place features nooks and lounges that can seat 1,200; couches and armchairs with ottomans; 25 group study rooms with marker boards; two computer labs and a 105-person auditorium with grand piano. A Starbucks will open in the lobby next semester.
---
Customers of the Chapter 11 in Norcross, Ga., are taking the store's closing particularly hard, perhaps harder than customers at the other five Chapter 11 outlets that are closing, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post. The Norcross store was the one that, after public demand, replaced a closed Waldenbooks two years ago.
"This is my neighborhood. I feel very strongly about having a neighborhood bookstore here," assistant manager George Scott told the paper. "These customers have enriched my life. How many places can you work where every customer knows your name?" Scott has been offered a job at another Chapter 11 but doesn't know if he will accept it.
---
An appearance by Joel Osteen, the televangelist and author of Your Best Life Now, at a Borders in Auburn Hills, Mich., drew more customers and energy than any other author or event--even Harry Potter--general manager Todd Allen told the Detroit News. "It was almost like he was a pop star, not a minister," Allen continued. The crowd was "crying, hyperventilating. They got a glimpse of him and went crazy. That part was really unexpected."
---
The Chattanoogan blesses the new building housing the Central Baptist Church in Hixson, Tenn., called Abba's House (Abba is Aramaic for father), which will include the Abba's House Bookstore and Cafe "offering a full-service Christian bookstore for the community and serving Greyfriar's coffee. Plans include the offering of essential Christian literature, gift items and inspiring worship CDs, and will open to the community in December with ongoing weekday store hours."
---
Metro Santa Cruz sheds light on the Rolling Darkness Revue, a troupe that features authors Glen Hirshberg and Pete Atkins and tells ghost stories. On Friday, the pair was joined by several local writers and musicians in a performance at the Capitola Book Café in Capitola, Calif.
"The idea was always to go and light a metaphorical campfire at the neighborhood bookstore," Hirshberg told the paper, "and then using your voice and your words and some man-made fog if we could find some--see if we could cast this kind of spell."