Shelf Awareness for Friday, September 7, 2007


Workman Publishing:  Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders by Cara Giaimo and Joshua Foer

Berkley Books: The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland

Simon & Schuster: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Nightweaver by RM Gray

News

Notes: B&N Settles Suits; Anniversaries and Awards

Without admitting liability, Barnes & Noble has settled all shareholder suits arising from the improper dating of stock option grants for B&N executives and staff, the company stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. B&N agreed, it said, "to institute certain corporate governance and internal control measures and to pay plaintiffs' counsels' fees and expenses in the total amount of $2.75 million."

Earlier this year, a special committee formed by the company found that over the past 10 years, B&N misdated and improperly backdated stock options to the tune of $45.5 million (Shelf Awareness, April 4, 2007). The special committee recommended the company make several changes, including reconstituting the board's compensation committee to consist of independent directors who were not members of the committee during the last decade; adding independent directors to the audit committee; reshuffling several other committees; creating a general counsel position; and having the CFO with help from the v-p of human resources oversee stock option policy.

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Congratulations to Tom Lowenberg and Judith Lafitte! Octavia Books, New Orleans, La., was voted "Best Locally Owned Bookstore" in Gambit Weekly, which wrote: "If, like Groucho Marx, you'd never join a club that would have you as a member, you're missing out at Octavia Books. In addition to frequent author signings and readings, Octavia has a well-established book club that meets once a month. A wide variety of well-respected choices such as Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop and Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay showcase the intellectual integrity of the group and hint at some pretty thought-provoking topics for discussion."

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Speaking of Octavia, in a review of bookselling in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast in the two years since Hurricane Katrina struck, Bookselling This Week spoke with Tom Lowenburg, who said that the store is "doing very well. Customers continue to be strongly supportive of local business." Sadly, of course, the city "continues to have all kinds of problems."

Pass Christian Books, Pass Christian, Miss., which re-opened last December in a temporary location five miles north of the original store, is also doing well, with sales at pre-storm levels, according to co-owner Scott Naugle.

For more and comments by other booksellers, go to BTW.

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Bookselling This Week also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by Betsy Burton and Barbara Hoagland, a store that has been thumping the thirty thing this year. "From January through September 2007," BTW wrote, "shoppers have received a 30 percent discount on hardcover books in a different section of inventory, on the 30th day of each month. A storewide 30 percent sale is being held on September 10, along with a champagne reception, a drawing for $30 Book Sense gift cards, and an appearance by author Diane Ackerman."

In addition, a 30th anniversary commemorative edition of the store's newsletter, Inkslinger, will have 30 lists of the staff's 30 favorite books over the past 30 years.

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Librería Lectorum, the 47-year-old Spanish-language bookstore in New York City, is closing its storefront on 14th Street in Manhattan and will sell only on the Internet, the New York Daily News reported. Owned by Scholastic, the store had considered moving but decided against it because the area is no longer a center of the Hispanic community. The landlord, whose father founded the store, expressed disappointment in Librería Lectorum's decision, saying that the new lease he offered was 30% below market rates. The store plans to hold readings in Spanish and Latino-themed events at Scholastic stores in SoHo and midtown.

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Cool, slim idea of the day. As fashion week in New York City continues to move elegantly down the runway, on Monday models wearing T-shirts advertising Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman (Running Press, $13.95, 9780762424931/0762424931) will give away T-shirts at Bryant Park, where the fashion shows take place, as well as at Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and the Virgin Megastore.

"We felt it was the right week to bring attention to the book," David Steinberger, CEO of Perseus Books Group, owner of Running Press, told Shelf Awareness.

On the front, the T-shirts have a picture of the book's cover, and the back reads, "The Bitch Is Back," a reference to Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-Ass Solutions for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap (And Start Looking Hot!) (Running Press, $13.95, 9780762431069/0762431067), which makes its debut December 10.

Skinny Bitch continues to strut its stuff on bestseller lists, including the Book Sense and some regional lists.

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Carolyn Reidy, who becomes president and CEO of Simon & Schuster January 1, succeeding Jack Romanos, outlined a major challenge for the company in today's Wall Street Journal: "What we have to do is create a simultaneous digital business even as we operate our traditional publishing company," she said. "We have to invest in digital even though it isn't offering much yet in the way of financial returns. And it's too early to know where the biggest returns will come from."

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Bookseller makes good.

On September 24, Doug Jones will join HarperCollins as senior v-p and director of sales for the Collins division. He will direct sales for Collins's four imprints--Business, Reference, Wellness and Lifestyle and Design--as well as oversee sales for the distribution client TOKYOPOP. Jones is currently v-p, director of marketing, for Putnam and Riverhead at the Penguin Group. Earlier he spent 12 years at Random House and was v-p, sales director, for the Crown Publishing Group. Before that, he was a field rep for Random House and manager of the Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex.

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Congratulations to Judith Roche, who won the Golden Umbrella Award for lifetime achievement from One Reel, the producers of Bumbershoot, the annual arts festival in Seattle, Wash.

An artist, teacher, mentor and literary arts director emeritus for Bumbershoot, Roche is also a poet. Her most recent title, Wisdom of the Body ($14.95, 9780930773816/0930773810), was published this year by Black Heron Press. 

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Eliot Fremont-Smith, former book critic for the New York Times and Village Voice, a founding board member of the National Book Critics Circle and editor-in-chief of Little, Brown, died on Wednesday, the New York Times reported. He was 78.

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Publishing a book? Check the polls first. New York magazine reported that Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist and "high priest of that Washington religion, the poll," has put his theories to the test in the publishing world. In anticipation of his upcoming book, Microtrends, Penn gathered "a focus group of about 200 book buyers to choose a cover image for him." His publisher's original idea, a snowball, was the first casualty. Penn said it "really died in the testing. A dud," and was replaced by a magnifying glass. Also changed was an earlier title, Minitrends. (See Media Heat item below.)

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USA Today's Fall Books Preview section, "Here's what's big and why," features an interactive, book-reading leaf (Think we're kidding?).

Another highlight was an interview with first-time author Stephen Colbert, who described the crafting of I Am America (And So Can You!) in typical Colbertian style: "First of all, I didn't write it. I dictated it. I shouted it into a tape recorder, and then I gave it to my agent. He transcribed it and sold it as a book. I found out, after doing this book, that the real problem I had with most books was that they weren't written by me."

 


Disruption Books: Our Differences Make Us Stronger: How We Heal Together by La June Montgomery Tabron, illustrated by Temika Grooms


General Retail in August: Better Than Expected, But . . .

Considering the tight credit market, mortgage mess and high fuel prices, general retail sales in August were stronger than expected, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported. Sales at 47 retail companies followed by the International Council of Shopping Centers rose 2.9%, compared to a gain of 3.8% in August 2006.

Department stores, luxury sellers and discounters all fared well, but several observers expressed caution. John D. Morris of Wachovia Securities told the Times: "These are not runaway, fantastic numbers."

Faith Hope Consolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman, the New York City real estate firm, told the Journal, "The middle-market consumer can still afford to shop, but there still are fears stemming from the mortgage market."

At stores open at least a year, sales at Target jumped 6.1%, Wal-Mart rose 3.1%, Costco climbed 2% while sales at Kohl's were down 0.6%. At the other end of the market, comp-store sales at Saks jumped 18.2%, Nordstrom climbed 6.6% and Neiman Marcus was up 4.6%.


NYU Advanced Publishing Institute: Early bird pricing through Oct. 13


AAP Sales: Potter Powerful in July

Hail Harry.

Net book sales in July rose 20%, based on data from 82 publishers provided to the Association of American Publishers.

Among the strongest categories:
  • Children's/YA hardcover (read HP7) rose 504.2% to $255.1 million.
  • Audiobook sales jumped 240.8% to $32.1 million.
  • E-books rose 31.8% to $2.8 million
  • Adult hardcover gained 28.6% to $73.4 million.
  • University press hardcover rose 19.7% to $6.9 million.
  • Professional and scholarly rose 13.8% to $107.6 million.
  • University press paperbacks rose 10.8% to $9.5 million.
  • Higher education rose 5.5% to $923.2 million.
  • El-hi, basal and supplemental K-12 rose 2.1% to $921 million.
Weaker categories:
  • Religious books were off 2.6% to $33.5 million.
  • Adult paperback fell 6.5% to $102.4 million.
  • Adult mass market fell 24.7% to $62.9 million.
  • Children's/YA paperback dropped 25.7% to $36.9 million.
Hard/soft dichotomy: interestingly children's/YA topped the list and was at the bottom of the list.


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Perseus Sales Force Changes

Matty Goldberg, sales and marketing director of Perseus Books Group, has announced a series of promotions, reflecting the new sales organization that followed Perseus's absorption of many PGW publishers, Consortium and the expansion of its distribution business.
  • Elise Cannon has been promoted to v-p, field sales, responsible for PGW, Perseus Books Group and Perseus Distribution sales into the independent channel. She has worked at PGW for 15 years and been in charge of this part of the business for the last four.
  • Clay Farr has been promoted to director, national accounts, Borders Group. In the three years since joining the company from Borders, he has handled Borders, Walden and Amazon sales.
  • Keith Arsenault has been promoted to sales manager, mass retail.
  • Peter D'Erasmo has been promoted to director and continues to manage the company's business in Canada and sell to the three major accounts there.
  • Charles Gee has been promoted to national accounts manager from senior sales rep and is responsible for Ingram and Hastings and other key accounts.
  • Laura Robinson has been promoted to senior sales rep from sales associate and is selling children's books to Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Bro-Dart and others.
  • Holly Demeter has been promoted to special markets manager from special markets coordinator and focuses on gifts.
  • Jeff Crowell has been promoted to national accounts associate from national accounts assistant. He helps sell to Barnes & Noble and B&N.com.


G.L.O.W. - Galley Love of the Week
Be the first to have an advance copy!
The Queen of Fives
by Alex Hay
GLOW: Graydon House: The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay

Quinn le Blanc, "the Queen of Fives," is the latest in a dynasty of London con artists. In August 1898, she resolves to pose as a debutante and marry a duke for his fortune. According to the dynasty's century-old Rulebook, reeling in a mark takes just five days. But Quinn hasn't reckoned with the duke's equally shrewd stepmother and sister. Like his Caledonia Novel Award-winning debut, The Housekeepers, Alex Hay's second book is a stylish, cheeky historical romp featuring strong female characters. Graydon House senior editor Melanie Fried says his work bears the "twisty intrigue of a mystery" but is "elevated [by] wickedly clever high-concept premises and explorations of class, social status, gender, and power." The Queen of Fives is a treat for fans of Anthony Horowitz, Sarah Penner, and Downton Abbey. --Rebecca Foster

(Graydon House/HarperCollins, $28.99 hardcover, 9781525809859, January 21, 2025)

CLICK TO ENTER


#ShelfGLOW
Shelf vetted, publisher supported

Media and Movies

Media Heat: The Terror Presidency

This morning on Fox and Friends: Naomi Wolf, whose new book is The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (Chelsea Green, $13.95, 9781933392790/1933392797). She will also be on the Seder on Sundays show on Air America on Sunday.

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This morning on the Today Show: Hal Edward Runkel, author of Screamfree Parenting: The Revolutionary Approach to Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool (Broadway, $21.95, 9780767927420/0767927427).

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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel who resigned over the "torture memos" and author of The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration (Norton, $25.95, 9780393065503/0393065502). 

Also on Fresh Air: Yaroslav Trofimov, author of The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda (Doubleday, $26, 9780385519250/0385519257).

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Today on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us (St. Martin's, $24.95, 9780312347291/0312347294). 

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Tonight on Larry King Live: Suze Orman, the financial advice diva.

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Tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman: Frank Rich, the New York Times columnist whose The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush's America (Penguin, $15, 9780143112341/0143112341) has just come out in paperback.

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Tomorrow on CNBC's Tim Russert: Mark Penn, author of Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes (Twelve, $25.99, 9780446580960/0446580961).


Books & Authors

ABFFE Book of the Month: Off the Record

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has chosen Off the Record: The Press, the Government and the War Over Anonymous Sources by Norman Pearlstine (FSG, $25, 9780374224493/0374224498) as its September book of the month. By the former editor in chief of Time, Inc., the book tells the story of the author's losing battle to protect the anonymity of Karl Rove, the White House advisor who was a source of a story by Time reporter Matt Cooper confirming that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Pearlstine was widely criticized by journalists for allowing Cooper's notes to be turned over to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald after the Supreme Court rejected appeals by Time and the New York Times.

"This is a fascinating book about the critical role that anonymous sources play in providing us with information about our government," ABFFE president Chris Finan said in a statement. "It provides an exciting insider's view of the fight waged by both Time and the New York Times against special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. At the same time, it reflects deeply on both the pros and cons of how the press uses confidential sources."


Awards: Man Booker Prize Shortlist

Yesterday the Man Booker Prize for Fiction longlist of 13 was whittled down to this shortlist of six (with their British publishers):
  • Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
  • The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
  • The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
  • Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
  • On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
  • Animal's People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
The winner will be announced Tuesday, October 16.



Book Review

Book Review: Quirkology

Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Richard Wiseman (Basic Books, $26.00 Hardcover, 9780465090792, August 2007)


 
In this Age of Anxiety, it's not hard to understand the popularity of works on human behavior like The Tipping Point, Blink and Freakonomics and a host of others trailing in their wake. Perhaps we hope they'll help us to a better understanding of ourselves and our fellow inhabitants of the planet and in the process relieve us of some of our own neuroses. Or maybe they're hot because they're simply entertaining works of pop psychology and sociology.
 
A noteworthy addition to this growing list of titles is Richard Wiseman's Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things. Wiseman has written a captivating book about what he's termed "quirkology": sometimes offbeat research into the more remote corners of the forest of human behavior, encompassing subjects like astrology, the paranormal, luck and the psychology of decision making.
 
The author, who's also a practicing magician, is a breezy and companionable guide through this world of quirky research often performed by highly regarded scientists at major universities. Wiseman introduces broad themes, like our beliefs about the ways in which the date or time of our birth influence behavior or how common superstitions shape our lives, and then summarizes numerous research studies focusing on these phenomena. As a good scientist, he's careful to raise questions about those studies that may have lacked an adequate foundation and is aware of the danger of confusing correlation and causation.
 
But Quirkology isn't a tedious catalogue of sometimes arcane psychological investigation. It's loaded with the results of practical studies that anyone might apply in daily life. For instance, a liar's dead giveaway isn't sweaty palms or shifty eyes, it's the number of words she employs to answer a question (liars use fewer) or the number of times he says "I" (truth tellers use that word more). In another study, Wiseman concluded that a balance of 70% "this is me" versus 30% "this is what I'm looking for" words in personal ads is most likely to generate a positive reply. If only Psychology 101 had been this useful and this much fun.
 
The only chapter that isn't completely engaging is the one that recounts Wiseman's extensive search for the "world's funniest joke." Inspired by the brilliant Monty Python sketch about a joke so hilarious that anyone who reads it instantly dies of laughter, Wiseman and his colleagues set out to find its less deadly counterpart; even Wiseman concedes he likely succeeded only in discovering "the world's blandest joke."

The book provides endless fodder for lively conversation. In an afterword, Wiseman even offers a helpful list of 10 factoids based on research reported in the book he claims will "pep up the dullest of dinner parties." (Example: "Women van drivers are more likely than others to take more than ten items through the express lane in supermarkets, to break speed limits, and to park in restricted areas.")
 
Even the most rational among us have difficulty getting through a day without succumbing to occasional bouts of superstitious, wishful or even magical thinking. If we didn't realize it already, Wiseman's book reminds us we've got plenty of company in that often inexplicable behavior. And if that knowledge doesn't offer at least some small comfort, we can always reach for a rabbit's foot or read our horoscope.--Harvey Freedenberg  


The Bestsellers

AbeBooks.com Bestsellers: Harry Potter and More

The following titles were the bestselling books on AbeBooks.com during August:

1. The Art of Public Speaking by Stephen Lucas
2. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
6. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
8. Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
9. Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
10. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

[Many thanks to AbeBooks.com!]


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