A buy local campaign with political overtones is occurring in Virginia's 5th congressional district. WSLS-TV reported that Representative-elect Tom Perriello "published a directory called 'Shop the Fifth' on his campaign website after Thanksgiving and sent an e-mail to 6,000 supporters, urging them to buy locally this holiday season."
"I have never heard of something like this before," said Carol Truxell, owner of New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville. "It's the locally-owned businesses that give a lot back to the community. We are not able to do that unless we are supported by the community."
"This is a time that people are hurting so much, we've just got to get creative," Perriello said. "If we can help encourage people to shop right here at home and keep the money in the community that's a win-win for everybody. . . . Most people know the Barnes & Noble is there, but they may not know the small independent bookstore is nearby."
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The winners of this year's Doug Marlette Awards, honoring the late Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist and sponsored by Kathy L. Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queens' Book Club and owner of Beauty and the Book, Jefferson, Tex. ("The only hair salon/bookstore in the country"), will be presented at Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend, January 15-17, 2009.
And the winners are: The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (Pulpwood Queens Book Club Selection of the Year), Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (Bonus Book Club Selection of the Year) and The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (Splinters and Pine Cones--teen and pre-teen chapters--Book Club Selection of the Year)
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When the holiday edition of the New York Times Style Magazine asked Michael Bruno of 1stdibs.com to list a few of his favorite things, he chose Books and Books, Coral Gables, Fla., saying, "It’s like a mini-university, with terrific lectures and an amazing cafe."
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Shop with a cop. That Bookstore at Mountebanq Place, Conway, Ark., was one of the destinations last weekend when off-duty police officers accompanied about 70 needy children on shopping sprees as part of the Fraternal Order of Police's yearly Shop with a Cop event, according to the Log Cabin Democrat.
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Starting in January, Turtle Point Press will organize and host exhibitions of artworks related to the book and the written word at its offices in the landmark Woolworth Building in lower Manhattan. The gallery will be open during the week by appointment. The initial exhibition, Duncan Hannah's "Poems and Poets," opens January 7 with a series of poetry book covers alongside his pencil portraits of poet friends. Artists whose work will be featured in future exhibitions include Alejandro Cesarco, Trevor Winkfield, Gregory Botts, Elaine Equi and Jeff Clark.
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Penguin Group (USA) has launched Penguin 2.0, a digital publishing program designed to offer a range of new digital and print-based products and services. Penguin 2.0, which will enable readers to customize, personalize and access the publisher's content in new ways online, will begin with a pair of digital initiatives--Penguin Personalized, where readers can add personal dedication pages to a variety of Penguin titles; and Penguin Mobile, which will allow readers to access Penguin content from their iPhones and other web-enabled mobile devices. Additional features and programs, including social networking and community functionality, will be rolled out over the next 12 months.
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Maureen Corrigan, book critic on NPR's Fresh Air, offered a downsized Best Books of 2008 list, noting that "in recognition of the fact that many of us are humming 'We Ain't Got a Barrel of Money' more often than we're singing 'Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,' almost all the gift books I'm recommending are paperbacks."
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Effective December 16, Mary McGrath is joining Simon & Schuster as director of distributor sales and retail marketing (DSRM), children's sales. She previously worked at Random House for 17 years, the past five of which she served as director of sales, adult mass merchandise.