Book News

For the four-week period ending July 25, 2004, and based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Less than a week after publication, the early success of The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Norton) can be best described as surprising -- sending its publisher back to the presses, booksellers scrambling to fulfill orders, and garnering good reviews in the media.

Raelynn Hillhouse will soon break into print with Rift Zone (Forge), an end-of-the-Cold War thriller bearing enthusiastic blurbs from half a dozen masters of her chosen genre. And this debut author's first novel has been chosen as an August Book Sense Pick.

John Evans and Alison Reid, co-owners of DIESEL, A Bookstore, in Oakland, California, recently opened a second DIESEL, in Malibu, which had been without a bookstore for years. Evans and Reid reported that the Malibu community was thrilled to have the store, which has been "doing gangbusters" since its Memorial Day weekend opening.

Based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S. for the four-week period ending July 11, 2004.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

"It's a mistake," cautions one of the characters in Ward Just's 14th novel, An Unfinished Season (Houghton Mifflin), "to infer the author's life from the author's fiction."

On Wednesday, July 7, NPR's Michele Norris interviewed three independent booksellers on the All Things Considered segment "Summer Reading Picks for Kids: Booksellers Make Suggestions for Warm Weather Tales." Norris spoke with Sheilah Egan of A Likely Story Children's Bookstore in Alexandria, Virginia; Johann Hauser-Ulrich of Wild Rumpus Bookstore in Minneapolis; and Judy Burlow of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver.

1. DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER: A Novel, by Jeff Lindsay (Doubleday, $22.95, 038551123X) "Dexter is a highly respected lab technician for the Miami Police Department. Though he appears to be an ordinary guy, Dexter has a secret. He is a serial killer, but not just any serial killer -- Dexter only kills bad people. With an amazing twist, this is a highly recommended book for all mystery lovers." --Linda Zehender, Full Circle Bookstore, Oklahoma City, OK

October 21, 2004, marks the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. publication of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings, and to celebrate, Houghton Mifflin is developing special-event kits and in-store display materials for Book Sense bookstores.

At first, Kate Whouley didn't want to write her memoir, Cottage for Sale, Must Be Moved: A Woman Moves a House to Make a Home. Rather, she said, she was busy working on a novel, handling bookstore-consulting projects, and mulling over a children's book based on the cottage-moving adventure.

From sea to shining sea and back again defines former President Bill Clinton's trajectory for one of the best-attended and best-publicized book tours in history. Neither the excitement nor the crowds have diminished since Clinton started the book signing tour for his memoir, My Life (Knopf), on June 22 in New York City.

The Publishing Triangle has created a list of the "100 Best Lesbian and Gay Nonfiction Books" and made the list available to booksellers, librarians, and the public on its Web site at www.publishingtriangle.org/. The association, which works to create support for lesbian and gay people in the publishing industry, compiled the list to broaden the audience for lesbian and gay literature and to promote discussion among all readers, no matter what their orientation.

Nutella® is teaming up with Book Cash, the nationwide program coordinated by the Properties Group, for a new promotion that offers consumers who purchase a jar of its hazelnut spread (13 oz. size or larger) a coupon to receive a $5 Book Cash check. The Book Cash check, good for $5 off the purchase price of a book, is valid until December 31, 2004. Booksellers must deposit Nutella Book Cash checks by January 14, 2005.

Based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S. for the four-week period ending June 20, 2004.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

The July 5 issue of The New Yorker, on sale June 28, features a special insert, "Book Sensibility: Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of Book Sense." The insert is an ode to the uniqueness and rich character of independent booksellers, their importance to the book industry, and of course, Book Sense. Preceding and following the insert are full-page Book Sense ads.