"The thing that really really turns me on--and I've now been doing it for 40 years, and it still works in exactly the same way--is this: you are sitting at home reading a manuscript and your hair stands on end and you think, 'I know how to publish this and, with a bit of luck, it could really work.'"--Dan Franklin, head of Jonathan Cape, in an interview with the Sunday Guardian. 

Foyles, the famous London bookshop, has returned to profitability after chief executive Sam Husain, hired in 2007, put an emphasis on making the 107-year-old store more customer friendly, having managers focus on the bottom line rather than just sales, adding some nonbook products, and--as the recession hit--maintaining staff, not cutting the marketing budget and charging full price on most books, the Guardian wrote.

Husain commented: "If you sell too cheaply you are going to have to compromise somewhere else. And we thought, 'Well, you can't compromise service, you can't compromise information, you can't compromise your display because that's all about making it a special place for your customer.' So our customers, I think, appreciate that. Some of them have even said, 'We are glad not to see those outrageous discount signs.'"

Although beloved by many bibliophiles, Foyles long had an "intimidating aura," multiple lines to buy a book, titles arranged by publisher and a revolving door for staff members.

Congratulations to City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, Calif., which has been named Bookseller of the Year by Publishers Weekly. Co-founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953, City Lights specializes in literature, the arts and leftist political titles and is officially a landmark.

Congratulations, too, to Ron Koltnow, a Random House rep in New England, who has been named PW's Rep of the Year. PW quoted Hilary Emerson Lay of the Spirit of '76 Bookstore & Card Shop in Marblehead, Mass., who nominated Koltnow and called him "one of the most well-read and truly bibliophilic reps I have ever known... he loves his job more than anyone I know, book-business or otherwise."

Both winners will be subjects of stories in the April 26 issue of PW and be honored at BEA in New York.

---

Congratulations as well to Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., which on Thursday, March 18, will accept the Henry Edgerton Civil Liberties Special Recognition Award at the National Capital Area ACLU's 2010 Bill of Rights Awards Dinner.

On its website, the store wrote, "While making some brief remarks about how gratified we are, we will take the occasion to reflect on one of the many books that we have promoted over the years that frame a historical event crucial to the affirmation of the Constitution and civil rights."

One example of those kinds of book is the new title Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court by Jeff Shesol (Norton), about Roosevelt's effort to pack the Supreme Court in order to lessen the power of its conservative majority, "a wonderful reminder about the precarious existence of civil rights, even during the administrations of presidents who seemed to embrace them."

---

Although Urban Think! Bookstore, Orlando, Fla., is closing at the end of the month (Shelf Awareness, March 2, 2010), the Urban Think! Foundation will continue and may take over the bookstore's space. Begun in 2008, the foundation supports a range of community programs as well as the Page 15 literacy initiative directed by Julia Young.

---

Bookstore video of the day: from Words bookstore, Maplewood, N.J., for You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up by Annabelle Gurwitch and Jeff Kahn (Crown). The authors' first scheduled appearance was snowed out and is rescheduled for April 2. Here co-owner Jonah Zimiles seems to have nicely channeled Gary Vaynerchuk in a video that took 45 minutes to set up and shoot. Thanks to Donna Paz for the tip!

---

And in other video news, Dave Weich, formerly of Powell's, has launched the first of his ReadRollShow series: a 13-minute interview Weich conducted with Joshua Ferris, whose The Unnamed was published in January by Reagan Arthur Books. They talk about his books, literature in general and more. Daniel Pink, who calls Ferris's first title, Then We Came to End, essential reading in his new book, Drive, makes a cameo.

ReadRollShow offers "candid interviews with celebrated authors and artists. And probably, eventually, with people who are neither authors nor artists, nor celebrated, but who, undeterred, snuck into our studio and started talking." The series is presented by Live Wire! Radio and produced by Sheepscot Creative.

---

A panel on Book Marketing Online, sponsored by the Women's National Book Association, will be held this Thursday, March 18, in New York City, the reprise of a panel a year ago (which, for this subject, might as well have been a century ago). Among subjects to be covered: LBS (location-based social networking) like Foursquare, Gowalla and Yelp.

Panelists are Fauzia Burke, president of FSB Associates; Peter Costanzo, director of online marketing, Perseus Books Group; Andrea Fleck-Nisbet, digital/online sales and marketing director, Workman Publishing; Ron Hogan, director of e-marketing strategy, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Kelly Leonard, executive director, online marketing, Hachette Book Group; Kate Rados, director of digital initiatives, Chelsea Green Publishing; and Abby Stokes, teacher and author of Is This Thing On?: A Computer Handbook for Late Bloomers, Technophobes, and the Kicking & Screaming. Moderator is Susannah Greenberg, Susannah Greenberg Public Relations.

Questions may be e-mailed in advance to publicity@bookbuzz.com. Appropriately, the panel already has a Twitter hashtag: #wnba318.

The panel will be held 6-8 p.m., on Thursday at the Association of American Publishers offices at 71 Fifth Avenue, 2nd floor (at 15th Street). Reception follows. Admission is free to WNBA and AAP members; $10 for non-members. Seating is limited. RSVP to programs@wnba-nyc.org.

Nearly 700 fans welcomed comedian/TV personality/author Chelsea Handler to Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., last Wednesday afternoon. Her new book is Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (Grand Central). The title of her last book--Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea--is still one of our all-time favorites.

David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of What's Wrong with My Plant? (and How Do I Fix It?) (Timber Press), hope to plant some publicity seeds during their two-month West Coast bookstore tour, which began at the end of February. Their events include an "open plant clinic," where anyone can bring in a sick plant for them to diagnose. The book suggests organic cures for more than 400 plant maladies.

This morning on the Today Show: Bethenny Frankel, author of The Skinnygirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life (Fireside, $16, 9781416597995/1416597999).

Also on Today: Laurie Abraham, author of The Husbands and Wives Club: A Year in the Life of a Couples Therapy Group (Touchstone, $25, 9781416585473/1416585478).

---

This morning on Good Morning America: Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz, authors of YOU: On a Diet Revised Edition: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management (Free Press, $26.99, 9781439164969/1439164967).

---

Today on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Nell Painter, author of The History of White People (Norton, $27.95, 9780393049343/0393049345).

---

Today on NPR's Tell Me More: Ada Calhoun, author of Instinctive Parenting: Trusting Ourselves to Raise Good Kids (Simon Spotlight, $23, 9781439157299/1439157294).

---

Tonight on the Daily Show: Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Norton, $27.95, 9780393072235/0393072231). He also appears today on the Today Show and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and tomorrow on Fresh Air, MSNBC's Morning Joe, Fox Business News and Charlie Rose.

---

Tonight on the Colbert Report: Robert Baer, author of The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower (Three Rivers Press, $15, 9780307408679/0307408671).

---

Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Todd Bridges, author of Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted (Touchstone, $26, 9781439148983/1439148988).

---

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: David E. Albright, author of Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies (Free Press, $27, 9781416549314/1416549315).

---

Tomorrow morning on Imus in the Morning: Tommy James, author of Me, the Mob, and the Music (Scribner, $25, 9781439128657/1439128650).

---

Tomorrow on NPR's Fresh Air: Karl Rove, author of Courage and Consequence (Threshold Editions, $30, 9781439191057/1439191050).

---

Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, $26, 9781400052172/1400052173).

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are "in early negotiations" with Focus Features to star in a film adaptation of the novel One Day by David Nicholls. Lone Scherfig will direct, and "Nina Jacobson is producing via her Color Force banner, along with Random House Films," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood and Melissa Leo have joined the cast of HBO's five-hour miniseries adaptation of James M. Cain's classic Mildred Pierce, Variety reported. has been expanded. The project stars Kate Winslet and will be directed by Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven). Shooting begins next month in New York.

The shortlist for this year's €5,000 (US$6,829) Irish Times Poetry Now Award includes On the Night Watch by Ciaran Carson, Spindrift by Vona Groarke, Through the Square Window by Sinéad Morrissey, The Sun-Fish by Eileán Ní Chuilleanáin and The Thing Is by Peter Sirr. The winner will be honored during the DLR International Poetry Festival, which takes place March 25–28.

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
 
The Heights: A Novel by Peter Hedges (Dutton, $25.95, 9780525951131/052595113X). "Peter Hedges's latest novel is set in Brooklyn Heights, and it tackles major issues: fidelity, parenthood, status and culture. Hedges handles them all with finesse, using a fantastically dry wit that is mixed with empathy and humanity, rendering all of his characters flawed, complex and, ultimately, lovable."--Andrea Talarico, Anthology New and Used Books, Scranton, Pa.
 
Animal Factory by David Kirby (St. Martin's, $26.99, 9780312380588/0312380585). "Centering on three different tales of large-scale factory farming, David Kirby takes the industry to task for its destruction of the environment, its deleterious effect on the family farm and rural America, and its lies, which have led to government inaction. Kirby's description of how the animals are treated is chilling, and I can guarantee that you'll never eat pork with a clean conscience again."--Matthew Lage, Iowa Book, Iowa City, Iowa
 
Paperback
 
Cast Member Confidential by Chris Mitchell (Citadel, $15.95, 9780806531281/0806531282). "Chris Mitchell--skateboard photographer, obsessive graffiti tagger and all-around hipster--signed up for a gig at Walt Disney World, inspired after meeting another extreme sports dude who has bought into the Disney lifestyle. Mitchell learns a few things--for instance, almost everybody is gay (he is not)--and his memoir is good fun. And yes, no matter how good your hair is, everyone in character must wear a wig."--Daniel Goldin, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wis.
 
For Teen Readers
 
Front and Center by Catherine Murdock (Houghton Mifflin, $16, 9780618959822/0618959823). "This is the third and final book in the trilogy started with Dairy Queen and continued in The Off Season. This time, D.J. Schwenk spends her junior year in high school dealing with basketball, boys and the Big Ten, not necessarily in that order! It's fun to watch D.J. and to see how she perseveres over her various challenges and develops the courage to make difficult decisions."--Carl Wichman, NDSU Bookstore, Fargo, N.D.
 
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]
 
 

Another Way the River Has: Taut True Tales from the Northwest by Robin Cody (Oregon State University Press, $18.95 trade paper, 9780870715839/0870715836, April 1, 2010)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

"The Clackamas River"

Nobody ever called the Clackamas "old man river." This young rascal is full of mischief and rebellion, brash and impatient, rising from the south slopes of Mt. Hood to catch up with the mature Willamette in the city.

Lucky for me, I grew up swimming across and drifting down and poking around and puzzling over the Clackamas. We lived on an unpaved dead-end road called Lakeshore Drive, almost in Estacada. A flat deep green beautiful part of the river lay right out our door. The wild laughing lyrical part struck up again below the dam.

My ninth-grade English teacher, Miss Davis, insisted that Henry David Thoreau's Walden was a good book. Can you believe that? I read about Walden Pond and said we'd do better to take Miss Davis for a float down the Clackamas.

She thought I was kidding.

I didn't have the brass or the words at the time to defend my position with Miss Davis. But it's a known fact that rivers can be as good as books for getting outside yourself. Other kids, maybe, had had an imaginary friend. In the Clackamas River I had a substitute teacher, a supplementary instructor, not imaginary at all.--Selected by Marilyn Dahl