CK Lau remains a buyer of shares in Quarto: His company 1010 Printing Limited has acquired another 1.343 million shares in the publisher recently, now owning 44.52 percent of the company. (Lau owns additional shares personally, about a 4 percent stake last we saw a disclosure.)
Correction
Our apologies: Friday’s list celebrating the very best books of 2021 got an important credit wrong. Honoree Fanonne Jeffers’ novel of the year The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois was edited by Erin Wicks and published by Harper.
For the Record: The Very Best of the Best Books of 2021
Per our earlier counts, it came down to the wire in tabulating the consensus very best books of 2021 and fittingly, works of nonfiction and fiction tied for Book(s) of the Year: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers and Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe shared the top honor. And books by Kazuo Ishiguro, Colson Whitehead, and Michelle Zauner all followed so closely (just two votes behind) that you can consider them almost equally lauded. As usual, here are out top 10s for the year — based on 63 “votes” from a variety of […]
Bernardini Released on Bail
Accused manuscript thief Filippo Bernardini is at large in New York after pleading not guilty to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger set bail for $300,000 — which was secured by the London home of Bernardini’s partner, who was at the hearing. Represented by Hannah McCrea at the nonprofit Federal Defenders of New York, Bernardini surrendered his passport and will stay with a friend in the West Village. McCrea said, “This is a very humbling experience. He intends to take it seriously.” Assistant US Attorney Daniel Nessim said Bernardini was an “overwhelming” flight risk, […]
FBI Arrests Elusive Manuscript Thief
The FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini, 29, on Wednesday afternoon when he landed at JFK Airport in New York, and unsealed an indictment, in a long overdue deal, charging him with with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Bernardini is accused of conducting “a multi-year scheme to impersonate individuals involved in the publishing industry in order to fraudulently obtain hundreds of prepublication manuscripts of novels and other forthcoming books.” Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York FBI office Michael Driscoll said in a news release: “We allege Mr. Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to get authors to send him […]
AAP Trade Sales Hit Another Record in November
Alongside good closing holiday sales figures from NPD Bookscan, the AAP announced StatShot statistics for November. Trade sales recorded another record high, at $924 million — up $58 million, or 6.7 percent, from 2020, and well above the strong $883 million recorded in November 2018. Adult sales registered $632 million (up $32 million) and children’s and YA sales reached $292 million (up $26 million). Digital audio gained 21 percent, to $64 million (up $11 million), and ebook sales rose 6 percent, to $88 million (up $5 million). Through 11 months AAP trade sales total $8.099 billion — already ahead of […]