Book City, which closed its Bloor West Village store in Toronto two years ago, is opening a store in early June in a 1,800-square-foot space two doors from its former location, according to Quill & Quire.

Book City's Danforth store.

"It is true, we are opening," general manager Ian Donker, son of Book City founder Frans Donker, told Q&Q. "The makeup of the neighbourhood is one that we like. It's full of young families, it's full of pedestrian traffic, it has good parking, it's on the subway line. We were there for over 20 years before we closed, and I'm hoping that we don't have to do that again. I'm hoping we're there for 20 more years."

Book City closed the store two years ago in part because of high rents, but has returned despite continued high rents because of the closing of a nearby Chapters at Runnymede. "We feel like we can snap up enough sales to compensate for that higher rent," Donker said. "One of the biggest things that made us go back to the neighbourhood is the fact that there were so many people really upset when we left, and so upset when there was no bookstore left at all. That made me feel that the neighbourhood would really get behind and support a new bookstore."

The new store will "cater to the neighbourhood," Donker said, with books geared to children and families. "We're a general bookstore, so we'll have everything in there," he said. "The shelves will be groaning eventually."

Earlier this year Book City closed its flagship Annex store after 38 years in business. Book City has three other stores in Toronto.

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Black Bond Books has opened its second Book Warehouse location, in Vancouver, B.C. (The company also has eight Black Bond stores.) The 1,900-square-foot store is on Main Street and is being managed by longtime bookseller Mary Ann Yazidjian, who Black Bond Books president Cathy Jesson described as "a strong believer in events and community connection." Jesson also thanked her husband, Mel, who "works miracles," and "our wonderful book-loving customers. Without you, this expansion would not be possible."

The new Book Warehouse is located at 4118 Main St., Vancouver, B.C. V5V 3P6 Canada; 604-879-7737.

Recorded Books has acquired HighBridge Audio from Workman Publishing. Workman will continue to distribute HighBridge's list, and Workman's Algonquin Books imprint will continue to license audio rights of select titles to HighBridge.

"Our affiliation with HighBridge has been exceptional, but it became clear as we looked to the future that Workman should be investing its energy in its core strengths," Carolan Workman said. "Along with the other Workman imprints, we will produce and publish the best and most exciting books and content in the markets where we excel."

Recorded Books calls itself "the largest independent publisher of unabridged audiobooks and provider of digital content to the library, school and retail markets." Owned by a fund managed by Wasserstein & Co., Recorded Books, Prince Frederick, Md., was founded in 1979 and has a catalogue of more than 13,500 audiobook titles.

It's been a difficult winter for BookHampton, East Hampton, N.Y., at the eastern end of Long Island. "The frozen winter and this very chilly spring caught BookHampton in a grip that has brought us to our knees," Kim Lombardini wrote in an e-mail to friends and customers. "We're fighting to have one more summer, and not to be bowed."

Her "heartfelt request: could you please help us take on the enormous challenge of saving BookHampton book by book. If every one of our friends, neighbors, and booklovers would be so kind as to buy one book today, it would make a true and immediate difference. Please take a moment to order just one book right now from BookHampton Any book at all. bookhampton@bookhampton.com.

"Tell us the book you're looking for or let us make a great recommendation. We'll hold it in store or ship it anywhere!"

HarperCollins Christian Publishing has bought Olive Tree Bible Software, Spokane, Wash., an online and mobile Christian Bible resource and e-commerce company. Olive Tree's software is accessible on the desktop, tablets and mobile devices across all major platforms and offers a wide range of products. Rachel Barach, currently general manager of HarperCollins Christian Publishing's Bible Gateway, will oversee Olive Tree.

"Olive Tree's product and technology expertise, combined with HCCP's resources, will better equip us in the digital Bible study resources market," Mark Schoenwald, president and CEO of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, said.

Barach added: "Olive Tree's focus on high quality, educational Bible experiences will complement Bible Gateway's mission to provide easy access to Scripture. Together, they will help grow biblical knowledge and engagement worldwide."

Ten Speed Press and Food52, a crowd-sourced content and commerce destination, are teaming up for a new cookbook imprint: Food52 Works. Hannah Rahill, v-p and associate publisher of Ten Speed, will be the general editor of the imprint, working closely with Food52 co-founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, as well as Ten Speed's v-p and publisher Aaron Wehner.
 
The inaugural Food52 Works title, Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook by Food52 executive editor Kristen Miglore, will be published in the spring of 2015. Two single-subject books about vegan cooking and baking will follow in fall, with three to four books per year planned subsequently.

Wehner said he has "been an avid reader of Food52 since the site first launched, and it has been fascinating to see how Amanda and Merrill have nurtured it from a dedicated community of passionate home cooks to one of the premier publications in the online food space, both in terms of content and aesthetics. Their recipes and photography are constant sources of inspiration, and Ten Speed is thrilled to be partnering with the Food52 team on launching their book program."

Illustrator Jerry Pinkney (left) received the 2014 Toast to the Children Literacy Award for his lifelong commitment to children's literacy and his contributions to children's book publishing. Top Chef Tom Colicchio presented the award at the Children of Bellevue's Toast to the Children event at his Riverpark restaurant in New York City. Photo: Veronica Bruno/High Value Images

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen Delicious!: A Novel by Ruth Reichl (Random House, $27, 9781400069620) as her pick of the month for May. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote:

"Dinner has always been a time to talk about the day, current events and favorite books. Reading has a similar communal feel, whether I buy a book as a gift or talk about my favorite titles with Connection readers and other friends. So, as a fan of good food and a good read, I believe Ruth Reichl's Delicious! is an ideal pick.

"Billie Breslin moves to New York City to work at the iconic food magazine Delicious! When the magazine folds abruptly, she takes a job maintaining the hotline for reader complaints. The work becomes less lonely when Billie discovers a hidden room that contain letters written by 12-year-old Lulu Swan to culinary great James Beard. The letters heal Billie in ways she never imagined."

Dan Lubart has joined Hachette Book Group as senior v-p, strategy and publishing operations and will oversee strategic planning, business development, digital media/distribution and supply chain management functions of all imprints at Hachette. He was previously senior v-p of sales analytics and pricing at HarperCollins.

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Stephanie Grossman has joined BOT Library Marketing at Penguin Random House Audio as a marketing associate. She most recently worked at a technology startup while doing freelance publicist for Permuted Press, Post Hill Press and BiblioCrunch. Earlier she worked at Simon & Schuster in subsidiary rights.

Nochita, a novel by writer and filmmaker Dia Felix (Sister Spit/City Lights).

Tomorrow morning on Fox & Friends: Jason Priestley, author of Jason Priestley: A Memoir (HarperOne, $26.99, 9780062247582).

Also tomorrow on Fox & Friends: Rick Springfield, author of Magnificent Vibration: A Novel (Touchstone, $24.99, 9781476758909).

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Tomorrow on the View: Lynne Cheney, author of James Madison: A Life Reconsidered (Viking, $36, 9780670025190).

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Tomorrow on Live with Michael and Kelly: Jenny McCarthy, author of Stirring the Pot: My Recipe for Getting What You Want Out of Life (Ballantine, $26, 9780553390865).

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Tomorrow on Chelsea Lately: Ariana Huffington, author of Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder (Harmony, $26, 9780804140843).

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Tomorrow night on the Tonight Show: Guy Fieri, author of Guy on Fire: 130 Recipes for Adventures in Outdoor Cooking (Morrow, $29.99, 9780062244710).

HBO has greenlighted a film about Bessie Smith, based on the legendary blues singer's life as well as the biography Bessie by Chris Albertson. Deadline.com reported that Queen Latifah will star in the untitled project, which is written and directed by Dee Rees (Pariah). Lili Fini Zanuck and Richard Zanuck are executive producing with Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, Shelby Stone and Randi Michel. Hallie Foote serves as co-executive producer, and Ron Schmidt is producer.

A new trailer has been released for Radio Free Albemuth, based on the Philip K. Dick novel. John Alan Simon adapted and directed the project, which stars Jonathan Scarfe, Shea Whigham, Katheryn Winnick and Alanis Morissette. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film "was shot back in 2007, but is finally getting a release via Freestyle Releasing and Freestyle Digital Media." Radio Free Albemuth debuts in limited theaters and on all digital platforms June 27.

Simon chose an indie route in order to "have the freedom to make a movie that captures all the other aspects that reader/fans like myself love--Dick's dark humor, politics, visionary metaphysics, borderline paranoia, and especially his tender view of the human condition."

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators has announced the winners of the annual Crystal Kite Member Choice Awards in its 15 regional divisions. The awards recognize "great books" from around the world and are chosen by other children's book writers and illustrators, making them the only peer-given awards in publishing for young readers. The Crystal Kite Award winners can be seen here.

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The 2013 O. Henry Stories prize winners have been announced, and all 20 short stories will be published in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013, which appears September. The prize jury of Lauren Groff, Edith Pearlman and Jim Shepard selected the winners from thousands published in literary magazines.

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Winners of the 2014 James Beard Foundation Book Awards include:

Cookbook of the Year: Historic Heston by Heston Blumenthal (Bloomsbury)
American cooking: The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes by Amy Thielen (Random House)
Baking and dessert: The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer with Martha Rose Shulman (Knopf)
Beverage: The Cocktail Lab: Unraveling the Mysteries of Flavor and Aroma in Drink, with Recipes by Tony Conigliaro (Ten Speed Press)
Cooking from a professional point of view: Historic Heston by Heston Blumenthal (Bloomsbury)
General cooking: Smoke: New Firewood Cooking by Tim Byres (Rizzoli New York)
Focus on health: Gluten-Free Girl Every Day by Shauna James Ahern with Daniel Ahern (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
International: Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop (Norton)
Photography: René Redzepi: A Work in Progress by Ali Kurshat Altinsoy, Ditte Isager, René Redzepi, Lars Williams and the Noma Team (Phaidon)
Reference & scholarship: Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine
One Plate at a Time by Adrian Miller (University of North Carolina Press)
Single subject: Culinary Birds: The Ultimate Poultry Cookbook by John Ash with James O. Fraioli (Running Press)
Vegetable focused & vegetarian: Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison (Ten Speed Press)
Writing and literature: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss (Random House)
Cookbook Hall of Fame: Diana Kennedy

James Beard award–winning chefs and restaurants were named last night. The complete list of award winners in all categories will be available on the James Beard Foundation website.

With The Reef, Iain McCalman (Darwin's Armada) has composed "a passionate history" of the Great Barrier Reef, opening with his own long-awaited voyage (part of a reenactment of Captain Cook's original trip). Following the prologue, he withdraws to the role of historian rather than participant, and chronicles the Great Barrier Reef as known to Western society over the last few centuries.

The Reef is divided into three parts. Beginning in 1770 with Captain Cook and proceeding through later explorers who helped chart the reefs in the 1800s, "Terror" emphasizes the threat the reef posed to ships and their navigators, and the fear of cannibals and others thought to inhabit the area. In Part II, "Nurture," the reef begins to offer refuge for those seeking to escape civilization or make a fresh start. Europeans are taken in by native islanders, or discover island paradise; naturalists arrive, captivated by the biodiversity and beauty of the area while beginning to realize that coral is a resource that can be exploited. "Wonder" sees the scientific community take an interest, disagreeing about the origins and biology of the reef. Ecology emerges as a new field of study, its proponents seeking to place the reef in the larger context of other natural environments, to study relationships and cause and effect. Individual activists work to defend the unusual and changing ecosystem from mining, oil spills, overfishing and the rough use of tourism.

At the end, we are introduced to nature-loving scientist J.E.N. Veron, nicknamed "Charlie" after Charles Darwin, an engaging character who communicates the final dire message of the Great Barrier Reef's looming extinction. Returning to the personal nature of his prologue, McCalman's epilogue speaks to the grim consequences of climate change but holds forth hope as well.

The few images in The Reef include portraits of the personalities involved but not the corals themselves (although McCalman refers his reader to books that offer the latter). This work's strengths include a coherent structure, friendly narrative style and a reasoned culminating call to action that does not disrupt its primary role as a comprehensive history. Plentiful notes indicate strong research, but McCalman's writing is accessible to any reader interested in the intersection of science, nature and history. From perceived threat to resource to paradise destination to climate-change indicator--Charlie Veron calls corals "the canaries of climate change"--the Great Barrier Reef is fully explored in this engaging study. --Julia Jenkins

Shelf Talker: The Great Barrier Reef is both easily understood and awe-inspiring in this history of its discovery, exploitation and beauty.