Books-A Million has closed its Laurens Road location in Greenville, S.C. WYFF News-4 reported that crews removing the building's sign said the structure was "was being renovated for a new tenant." BAM has been converting some of its low-volume bookshops into 2nd and Charles stores, and News 4 noted that "job listings for a new 2nd and Charles location in Greenville list the Laurens Road location."

The Barnes & Noble store located on Harbison Boulevard in Columbia, S.C., will close at the end of the year, the State reported, citing employees who are telling customers the store is shutting down because its lease is not being renewed.

Sue Boucher has sold the Lake Forest Book Store, Lake Forest, Ill., to Eleanor Thorn, who had been the store's bookkeeper for the past year and a half. In a note to customers, Boucher called Thorn "an excited and motivated woman who is eager to carry on the work that I have cherished for so many years."

Sue Boucher (l.) with new Lake Forest Book Store owner Eleanor Thorn.

The store was founded in 1949 by a group of local women. With Louise Wood, Boucher bought Lake Forest Book Store 18 years ago; in 2007, the store moved into an 1,800-square-foot space formerly occupied by B. Dalton.

Boucher noted that when she bought the store, "I was new to the book business but had a passion for books and a lifelong love of reading. I worked very hard to get to know our customers and their families and what types of books they loved. Eleanor is excited to learn from you as well. She is supported by a devoted staff of booksellers who have a combined 158 years of experience."

Boucher, who called herself "committed to the bookselling life," will be "helping out" at the Cottage Book Shop, Glen Arbor, Mich., as well as assisting Thorn for several months.

She added: "Your support of the Lake Forest Book Store is special; you have shared your lives with me and I have watched your children and grandchildren grow up. This has been a privilege and an honor. I have always felt that Lake Forest Book Store has a big heart. My wish is for this to continue and with your support it will. You were so patient with me and I hope you will welcome Eleanor into your lives as well. Your continued support of Lake Forest Book Store will keep it going for many more years to come."

"We've had such a crazy summer," said Marlene England, who opened Curious Iguana, a new bookstore and benefit corporation in Frederick, Md., on September 7, with her husband, Tom. She laughed, adding: "We didn't really announce the opening too publicly. We wanted to make sure everything was working correctly first. We didn't really tell anybody until one or two days before."

Although Marlene and Tom England have no prior experience bookselling, they do have ample experience as retailers: the couple own another store in Frederick's historic downtown, a toy store called Dancing Bear Toys and Gifts, which they founded in 2000. Before deciding to open a bookstore, the Englands had considered opening another toy store in a different town. They realized, though, that they were attached to Frederick, and chose instead to move Dancing Bear to a bigger location around the corner. In the former Dancing Bear space, they opened Curious Iguana.

"We just loved the downtown," Marlene said. "And the community had been asking for a bookstore. It's a natural fit. People are coming in and saying 'thank you for doing this.'"

Curious Iguana's status as a benefit corporation sets it apart from most independent bookstores; the store shares proceeds with international nonprofits such as Kiva, which specializes in micro-loans and lending to alleviate poverty. To coincide with that mission, the Englands have given the store's inventory a "global focus" by making an effort to stock lesser known titles from around the world as well as the major releases. In particular, they've emphasized multicultural books. Curious Iguana also features a large world map behind the counter and a huge, transparent globe hanging in the front window. Curious Iguana has funded 18 Kiva loans.

"The idea is to open some eyes and minds to what's going on in the world around us," clarified England. "We have lots of books people have never seen before. They can come in, hear different stories."

Curious Iguana is less than 1,000 square feet and carries about 2,500 titles. The store's inventory is very carefully selected. Everyone on staff, which includes two former children's librarians, has a hand in selecting inventory and picking books that they love.

"I know enough about retail to know that you can't know everything," England stressed. "You have to surround yourself with smart people. We have a wonderful team. Between us we all brought our favorite booklists to the table. IndieBound and Ingram were also huge helps. We started with their lists, adding and deleting from there."

The Englands have just begun to plan events. They hope to host food events with local restaurants, author dinners and readings, as well as book clubs. Curious Iguana also features a large TV screen mounted in store, enabling Marlene and Tom to do Skype sessions with people from all over the world. On the docket is a public Skype chat with several customers who are currently doing a service project in Belize.

"We were just thankful to open the doors," said England. "There's a lot in the works, there's a lot of interest in the community, but we have to pace ourselves. We don't want to do it half-assed. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it right." --Alex Mutter

Politics took a back seat to topics like literary pillow talk as bibliophiles gathered at the state capitol in Austin last weekend for the 18th annual Texas Book Festival. Spicing things up with a session about writers' romantic exploits were Betsy Prioleau (r.), author of Swoon: Great Seducers and Why Women Love Them, and Shannon McKenna Schmidt (c.), co-author of Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads--and Shelf Awareness contributing writer--with moderator Tiffany Yates Martin. (photo: Joel Martin)

Congratulations to Island Books, Mercer Island, Wash., which celebrates its 40th anniversary this coming Sunday, November 3, starting at 3 p.m. As owner Roger Page wrote to customers, "The party is not going to feature a long-winded blustery speech by the owner. It's going to be a get-together. A pie social. A gathering of like-minded and wondrous people who have played parts large and small in the long life of the store. You all. Old friends. Maybe champagne will loosen tongues and raise spirits. Perhaps pie will prompt laughter and funny stories. We will give out some gifts for those who attend, some prizes for the clever, some cheers for those who have a story to share. Join us. It will be a fun afternoon of friends. We can't thank you enough for your support all these years."

Alley Cat Books Gallery in San Francisco, Calif., is hosting a Bookseller's Ball on Friday, November 15, from 6-9 p.m. There will be square dancing, ping-pong, food and drink and, as Kate Rosenberger put it, "an opportunity for booksellers to meet and greet each other." Alley Cat Books is at 3036 24th St. Please RSVP at alleycatbookssf@gmail.com or 415-824-1761.

From the Facebook page of Bermuda Bookstore, Hamilton, Bermuda:

"So a customer just sent me their Amazon 'shopping cart' and asked me to quote on it. For the 7 books, Amazon was charging a discounted price of $68. The Bookstore's price was $105. For some reason I thought to check how much Amazon would charge to ship it to Bermuda. For Amazon's "Expedited shipping" (which takes 8-16 days to get here) the charge was $145!!!!!! Bermuda Bookstore does not charge for shipping and generally gets books here within a week.... We win!!!"

Harry Helm, v-p and associate publisher of marketing for Hachette Nashville, is leaving the company to pursue personal interests, the company said.

"For many years, Harry has wanted to follow his heart to New England and spend more time at his home on the shores of Cape Cod," Rolf Zettersten, senior v-p and publisher of Hachette Nashville, said. "I hate to see Harry leave us, but I am happy for him because he is taking a direction that he has wanted to pursue for a long time." He will remain at Hachette Nashville through the end of the year.

Helm was hired in 1998 as a national accounts manager selling Warner Books to Borders. From 2002 to 2007, he was sales director for the Hachette Nashville division and for Bulfinch.

---

Blaise Bace has returned to HarperCollins, as associate director of online marketing. He will oversee online marketing campaigns across all of the Harper imprints, including Harper hardcover, Amistad, Broadside Books, Harper Business, Harper Design and Harper Wave.

He was formerly a consumer and social media marketing manager at Manning Publications and earlier worked in online advertising and in the HarperCollins sales department.

---

Mary Ann Zissimos has joined Disney Publishing Worldwide as publicity manager. She formerly worked at HarperCollins, Abrams, Penguin and Random House.

In January, International Publishers Marketing begins distributing the following presses:

JJ Books, London, which publishes illustrated books.
The University of Buckingham Press, which publishes law, education, politics, history and business titles.
Kolibri Languages, which publishes titles about French and French culture.
Liberties Press, an Irish publisher of nonfiction, literary and crime fiction, poetry and other titles.
Enodare, which focuses on self-help business and legal products and information.

I'd Rather Be Short: 100 Reasons Why It's Great to Be Small by Becky Murphy (Plume), a video that shows the many advantages of being not tall.

This morning on CBS This Morning: J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst, who conceived and wrote, respectively, S. (Mulholland Books, $35, 9780316201643).

---

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Ree Drummond, author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays: 140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations (Morrow, $29.99, 9780062225221).

---

Tomorrow morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe: Alan Greenspan, author of The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting (Penguin Press, $36, 9781594204814).

---

Tomorrow on Katie: Bill O'Reilly, co-author of Killing Jesus (Holt, $28, 9780805098549).

---

Tomorrow on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, readers review Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

---

Tomorrow night on the Daily Show: Diane Ravitch, author of Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools (Knopf, $27.95, 9780385350884).

The final trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been released, debuting over the weekend "during the World Series (spooooorts!)," Indiewire noted. The film opens November 22 and will debut at the Rome Film Festival just before that.

NBC has ordered a script from 20th Century Fox TV for a procedural based upon Thomas Sniegoski's six-volume Remy Chandler urban fantasy novel series. Deadline.com reported that the project "is described as a procedural with humor, questions of faith and fate, and a very distinct partnership." Bill Chais will write and executive produce.

Winners of the Specsavers Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards were named at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards in London, the Bookseller reported. In addition, a new prize, the Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read, went to Malcolm MacKay for The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter. The Dagger winners are:

Goldsboro Gold Dagger: Dead Lions by Mick Herron
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Ghostman by Roger Hobbs
John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger: Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

In 1961, amateur country fiddle player Jim Stewart and his sister, Estelle Axton, proprietor of Satellite Record Shop, launched a recording company in Memphis, Tenn. Jim had an ear for music; Estelle knew her customers and knew what would sell. Soon, musicians like Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn--the core of Booker T and the MGs--moved from hanging out at Satellite to recording for Stax, and the label eventually took off on a 15-year run feeding the musical soul of black America--a run as unlikely to be born in the center of the country as it was from the talents of two middle-class white siblings.

In Respect Yourself, lifelong Memphian Robert Gordon (author of the Muddy Waters biography Can't Be Satisfied) chronicles the exciting rise and ugly fall of his hometown music giant with a historian's rigor, a journalist's persistence, a filmmaker's scope and a musician's swing. When he describes the Stax sound as coming from "the thick funk of Memphis swamp," you know he's been there.

While Gordon's documentary film (also titled Respect Yourself) is full of great Stax music, the book provides much more detail about the key players and events in the label's history, along with the role of the notoriously segregated Memphis in the civil rights movement. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in the city in 1968, Stax recording star Otis Redding had just died; soon after, when their distribution relationship with Atlantic Records ended, they lost the rights to their backlog of hit records. As Gordon puts it: "In a state of shock, Stax was a body going cold."

But Stax still had Al Bell, a former DJ who joined Estelle and Jim as a promoter and eventually became the label's vice-president. He began rebuilding the Stax catalogue, a process that accelerated after he bought out Estelle. One of the key elements of the label's rebirth was Isaac Hayes: his breakout album Hot Buttered Soul and then the soundtrack to the hit movie Shaft brought in much-needed revenue. With early Stax stars Eddie Floyd and Rufus Thomas still around, and the newly signed Staples Singers topping pop charts, Bell was able to get a new national distribution deal for Stax, this time with Columbia Records, but the business ultimately unraveled in a series of lawsuits and financial scandals.

Respect Yourself is a prototypical American bootstrap story of poverty, race, music, money and greed. But it is also a story of "shifting the paradigm, breaking the covenant, pursuing the dream... riffing, an economic jam session, a socioeconomic symphony... determined to reach the next eight bars." --Bruce Jacobs

Shelf Talker: Memphis native Gordon explores the rise and fall of the legendary Stax Records label during the turbulent civil rights movement.