ABA announced this week that the distinguished historian and writer Doris Kearns Goodwin will serve as host for the 2002 Celebration of Bookselling -- ABA's and Book Sense's annual reception for attendees of BookExpo America (BEA). Goodwin is the author of several bestsellers, including No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, as well as the memoir Wait Till Next Year.

In January, the "Book Cash Accepted Here" decal was sent to booksellers. It is important that bookstores participating in the Book Sense program remember to place the decal prominently in their store window to let consumers know that Book Cash certificates are accepted at their bookstore.

Book Sense and recent 76 picks will be featured in print advertisements that will reach hundreds of thousands of consumers in the upcoming weeks.

Book Sense "bookmark" ads in The Atlantic will feature The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland (Viking, 0670894494) in February; Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown (Knopf, 0375411968) in March; and What Do We Know by Mary Oliver (Da Capo Press, 030680994X) in April.

Based on the nominations of ABA member booksellers, the Book Sense Book of the Year Award finalists in five categories were announced on February 13 by the American Booksellers Association. Booksellers will vote for one winner in each category -- Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Children's Illustrated, and, new this year, Rediscovery. Nominations were drawn from the Top Ten Book Sense 76 picks of 2001.

Accountant Tess Uriza Holthe did not begin the writing class at her favorite bookstore with dreams of completing a novel. At the time, writing was a hobby. However, when Linda Watanabe McFerrin (author of The Hand of Buddha, Coffeehouse Press) -- who was teaching the class "Life into Literature" at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California -- gave her students an assignment to write about a family myth, a treasure chest of memories was unlocked for Holthe.

Madison, Wisconsin -- famous for its independent spirit; community of passionate readers and thinkers; and great cheese.

Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (Random House) -- a vivid and often heartbreaking memoir by a daughter of white farmers who moved from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to Malawi to Zambia -- has been drawing the sort of praise from reviewers and booksellers that first-time authors dream of.

BookSense.com has begun a marketing program designed to encourage booksellers who may not have evaluated the program since its commercial launch in November 2000 to look again. Len Vlahos, BookSense.com director, told BTW that since BookSense.com first went online in the summer of 2000 in a live beta test "the product has experienced so much growth and development -- we really want stores to take another look."

Book Sense is pleased to announce the addition of four publishers to the ranks of its Publisher Partners: Rugged Land, Words Distributing Company, Red Wheel/Weiser, and Four Walls, Eight Windows.

Booksellers know that the Book Sense 76 is a great marketing tool. But now booksellers are finding out that adding their store's logo on the front of the flyer makes it an even better marketing tool.