Book Sense

And the Winners Are….

At this year's Celebration of Bookselling at BookExpo America, Leif Enger's Peace Like a River (Atlantic Monthly) won the Book Sense Book of the Year award as best adult fiction title.

The winner for adult nonfiction was Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House), and the winner of the rediscovery award -- presented for the first time this year -- was given to My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett (Random House).

On Saturday, May 4, while booksellers attending BookExpo America at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center are visiting publishers, grabbing advance readers’ copies, and networking, Annie Bauman will be ladling Kool-Aid at the grand opening of Village Books in Roslindale, Massachusetts. The 900-square-foot store is opening in a resolutely independent community midway through its renaissance.

The Christian Science Monitor has expanded its coverage of things Book Sense-related with the publication, in its April 25 edition, of the Book Sense Poetry 76 Top Ten. The paper regularly includes the Book Sense Fiction and Nonfiction Bestseller lists in its Books section and has also published select Book Sense Specialty Bestseller lists.

Based on feedback from many booksellers, BookSense.com has added five new features and has extended the BookSense.com free trial from June 30 to August 16.

The May 6 issue of The New Yorker (on newsstands on April 29) will feature the fifth special Book Sense insert, "Bound to Please: Great Gift Ideas From Your Independent Booksellers." This 14-page special feature will showcase a number of independent booksellers, in both text and pictures, and will share their enthusiastic picks for gift-giving from recent Book Sense 76 selections.

For summer listening and in celebration of June is National Audiobook Month, here are your top ten picks.

The pad of fliers will be in the May white box, and to you by June 1. Thank you!!!

Carl
[email protected]

1. THE NANNY DIARIES, by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus; read by Julia Roberts (Random House Audio, Abridged, $25, 0553714759)

By Maret Orliss, Vroman’s Bookstore

Vroman’s has always been a big supporter of the Book Sense program. Through BookSense.com, the gift certificate program, and the Book Sense 76 list, Book Sense is an effective marketing program and a terrific way of promoting that independent bookstores, while unique, also share a common connection.

Due to overwhelming interest in this year's Book Sense 76 Author & Bookseller Luncheon, Carl Lennertz has announced that the event is now filled up. "When Book Sense and The New Yorker initiated the luncheon last year in Chicago, the response from booksellers, authors, and publishers was outstanding. For many people it was the highlight of the entire show. We expect nothing less this year. It's too bad we can't include everyone."

Calling all publishers -- especially those in marketing, sales, and publicity! You’re invited to come meet ABA staff for an update and Q&A session on all ABA and Book Sense programs on Thursday, May 2, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center (Room 1E17K) in New York City.

Key items include Book Sense Bestseller lists and the Book Sense 76 program, BookSense.com, the Local Marketing Intelligence program, and the ABA Book Buyer’s Handbook Online. Admission is open to all BEA exhibiting publishers.

The Book Sense family of Publisher Partners continues to grow with the addition of two new Partners, just in time for BEA: Continuum International and Hyperion Books for Children.

Soon after the Book Sense 76 list debuted, Shirley Muller, owner of Bay Books of Coronado, California, had an idea about how to drive local traffic into her store. She began imprinting 10,000 copies of each new Book Sense 76 list with the Bay Books name and address and had it inserted in the local weekly newspaper, the Coronado Eagle and Journal. Muller continues to promote her store with the 76 to this day. "I noticed people coming in with the list marked, already checked -- they get it at home and they read it," she said.

In a notable achievement, independent presses carved out five of the 10 slots for books nominated by independent booksellers for the Book Sense Poetry 76 Top Ten list, released late February in advance of April's National Poetry Month. The presses include Seven Stories, Holy Cow! Press, BOA Editions, Copper Canyon, and Graywolf.

By Carl Lennertz

When we first announced our initiative to branch out and have Regional Bestseller Lists as well as the National one, it just seemed logical to call them the Book Sense/NEBA Bestseller List or Book Sense/SEBA list, as the first two were known.

The title of Elisabeth Hyde's new work of fiction from Macadam/Cage, Crazy as Chocolate, was taken from poet Anne Sexton's line, "Even crazy, I'm as nice as a chocolate bar." Izzy (née Isabel) narrates this tale of her family, alternating past and present.

Snow Goose Bookstore, "The Goose," of Stanwood, Washington, moved to a larger space on Saturday, March 30 -- and, with help from the community, they were open and ready for business by Monday morning, April 1.