BTW News Briefs

Man Booker Longlist Announced

 This week, the judges for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction announced their longlist of books in the running for the prize this year. The longlist of 13 books, the "Man Booker Dozen," was chosen from 110 entries; 92 were submitted for the prize and 18 were called in by the judges. The longlist is:

•  Darkmans by Nicola Barker (4th Estate)
• Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
• The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
• The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
• Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
• What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Tindal Street)
• Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann)
• Animal's People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
• Winnie & Wolf by A.N.Wilson (Hutchinson)

The 2007 shortlist will be announced on Thursday, September 6, at a press conference at Man Group's London office. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 16, at an awards ceremony at Guildhall, London.

Page & Palette Sues Convention Center Over "Marred" Deen Event

Alabama's Press-Register has reported that Page & Palette in Fairhope, Alabama, is suing the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center and a production company for $1.5 million. The suit was filed by the bookstore in connection with a May author event with Paula Deen that was allegedly "marred by poor sound, lighting, and parking amenities," the Press-Register noted. Page & Palette contends that its name and reputation were irrevocably damaged by the poor presentation, and that the store will lose profits because of it.

Two Indies Help Art Studio Recover From Burglary

Following a burglary of Faces in the Loop, a St. Louis art studio dedicated to helping children in public housing, two independent bookstores -- Left Bank Books and Subterranean Books -- have stepped up to the plate to help the studio out. Dozens of donated African-American children's books, among other valuables, were stolen from the art studio on Wednesday, August 1.

To help replace the stolen books, Left Bank Books approached Subterranean Books and together they are holding a Book Drive to accept donations of African-American children's books. The two stores are also donating books off their own shelves and are offering lists of appropriate titles for those who wish to buy and donate new books.

"We want to give our heartfelt thanks to all the contributors," said Jarek Steele, co-owner of Left Bank Books, who helped put the Book Drive into effect. "Between Subterranean and Left Bank, we've had over 150 donations so far, and more are coming in every day."

A list of suggested titles for those who wish to purchase and donate a book online is available at www.left-bank.com.

The 2007 MBA Booksellers' Choice Award Winners

This week, the Midwest Booksellers Association and its 240-plus locally owned and operated independent bookstore members announced the winners and honorable mention recipients of the 2007 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards:

• Fiction: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing)
• Nonfiction: Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Poetry: The Blizzard Voices: Poems by Ted Kooser (University of Nebraska Press)
• Children's Picture Book: A Good Day by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
• Children's Literature: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Houghton Mifflin Company)

The 2007 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards will be presented formally on Friday, October 5, during MBA's 27th Annual Trade Show in Minneapolis. The event is open to MBA members who are registered to attend the trade show.

SCIBA Offers Los Angeles to San Diego Bookstore Tour

On Saturday, August 18, the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) will offer a bookstore tour, beginning at 8:00 a.m. at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and traveling to San Diego. The tour will include lunch with an author, then cookies and milk as the bus heads back to Los Angeles.

Harley Jane Kozak (Dead Ex, Doubleday) and Tracey Porter (Billy Creekmore: A Novel, Joanna Cotler) will participate in the tour, which will stop at Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego), Yellow Book Road (La Mesa), Bay Books (Coronado), San Diego Museum of Art (Balboa Park), Warwick's (La Jolla), and The Book Works (Del Mar).

SCIBA has additional tours planned for September 29 to Los Angeles-area Museum Stores and for November 11 to the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley Book Festival (hosted by Peppertree Bookstores).

The Children's Book Shop Wins 2007 Best of Boston Kid's Books

Boston Magazine, which each year honors all things Boston in hundreds of categories, this year, named The Children's Book Shop in Brookline Village, Massachusetts, the recipient of the 2007 Best of Boston Award for Kid's Books.

The magazine noted: "Like everything well loved by a child, this Brookline Village institution has become charmingly worn around the edges, the creaky floors a testament to decades of small roaming feet. It eschews the chain bookstores gloss (and their piles of trinketry and TV tie-ins) for shelf after wonderful shelf of kid's titles -- more than 21,000 in all. The shop may be considering a spiffing up for its 30th anniversary this year, but here's hoping it'll always be a tad dog-eared: after all, that's how bookworms mark a place they want to go back to."