Book Sense

Our Book Sense Publisher Partners have outdone themselves this month, with a cornucopia of goodies for you to consider. Here are just some of the highlights:

Galleys, ARCs, and Finished Books:

Much as it was for the beings of Middle Earth before Frodo and Sam finally made it to Mt. Doom … time is running out for those booksellers who wish to participate in The Lord of the Rings The Final Journey Sweepstakes and who haven't received materials yet.

Gauging from the sounds in the background as BTW recently interviewed Michael Raubertas of Four Seasons Books, the bookselling climate at the Shepherdstown, West Virginia, bookstore includes much sawing and banging.

On Tuesday, November 18, author Carl Hiaasen recommended The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad Press) as the next selection to be read by NBC News' Today Show Today Book Club.

Based on four weeks of sales ended November 16, 2003, from hundreds of independent bookstores across the country.

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

The full Winter 2003/2004 Children's Book Sense 76, with bookseller quotes, is now online at http://news.bookweb.org/read/1983. Stores should begin receiving copies of the list during the last week of November.

Mindful that booksellers are entering the important -- and busy -- holiday season, here's a very quick Book Sense 76 reminder.

The deadline for the January/February Book Sense 76 is Friday, November 21, just a little over a week away. This is an important list to start the new year, and receiving nominations over the next week is very important.

The December 8 issue of The New Yorker, which goes on sale December 1, will include the latest Book Sense insert, "Booked for the Holidays." The special 12-page feature presents the holiday picks of independent booksellers, which were drawn from the November/December Book Sense 76 list. (To view the full 76, click here.) The insert will also include publishers' picks, and the November/December Book Sense 76 Top Ten will be featured in a full-page ad.

When Joseph Biernat and his wife, Elizabeth, bought Hudson Valley Book Stop in Kingston, New York, from Elizabeth's parents last September, they weren't counting on a chain bookstore opening directly across the street. But, as in nature, in business adaptation is key, so the Biernats developed a plan. They are going to allow customers to bring in their used books for credit towards new or used books at Hudson Valley. "We'll use [the chain] for what they're good for, which is getting more books into the market," Joseph Biernat said.

"I guess we're bucking the trend," said Debi Echlin of 2nd Edition Books and Gifts in Oakland, California. Co-owners Echlin and Helen Talley reformatted their store from selling mostly used books to carrying only new titles. At a time when many booksellers are opting to add used books to their inventory mix, Echlin said she realized that her diminutive section of new books, comprised entirely of Book Sense Bestsellers and 76 picks, was substantially more profitable than the rest of the used stock.

Vittula, as Mikael Niemi explains in his first adult novel, is short for Vittulajanka, a district located in the Swedish village of Pajala. It's a place where the winters are long, cold, and dark. But it's also a place where the joys of being a teenager burn vividly.

In the November/December Book Sense 76, the nominating bookseller for Evolution's Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World, by Peter Nichols (HarperCollins, $24.95, 006008877X) was Jeanne Morris, Bethany Beach Books, Bethany Beach, Delaware.

With the Book Sense Gift Card Program in full swing, and the holiday season just around the corner, booksellers participating in the program should note that important updated information is available at the Book Sense Gift Card Web page at http://www.bookweb.org/read/6303.

This week, we are announcing the top ten picks for the Winter 2003/2004 Children's Book Sense 76, based on the nominations of independent booksellers nationwide. Book Sense 76 Editor-in-Chief Dan Cullen sends many, many thanks to all the booksellers who nominated titles. He notes, too, that all nominations are crucial. Many factors come into play in selecting the quote that is printed in the full 76, but those that are not published play a very important role in composing the entire list.

Self-assured and passionate describe both the stories in How to Breathe Underwater and their author, 30-year-old Julie Orringer. This debut collection, published by Knopf in September, showcases the considerable talents of Orringer, a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and Cornell University and a recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford University, where she now teaches.