Augusten Burroughs’ Lust & Wonder is Amazon‘s spotlight pick for April, and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren is their featured debut. The rest of their best books of the month are: Maestra, L.S. Hilton Dodgers, William Beverly Kill ‘Em and Leave ‘Em, James McBride Consequence, Eric Fair The Mathews Men, William Geroux The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith Girls & Sex, Peggy Orenstein Rise of the Rocket Girls, Nathalia Holt A Burglar’s Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh The iBooks Store is featuring these titles as the month’s best fiction: The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, Manuel Gonzales Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld Daredevils, Shawn Vestal […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: Books Inc. Wins An Award and Closes In the Castro, and More
Bay-area bookstore chain Books Inc. will close their location in San Francisco’s Castro in June as the lease expires, after 21 years there. CEO Michael Tucker tells Hoodline, “it wasn’t financially feasible for the company to re-up for another five year lease.” He notes, “It’s been a tough slog because sales have continued to trail off. When the store continues to be in the red and then it continues to go down and occupancy costs go up, and everything else in the city continues to go up, it starts going in the wrong direction.” On the positive side, Books Inc. has been named […]
New Owner for BookHampton; R.J. Julia to Manage Operation
The East Hampton, NY branch of independent bookstore BookHampton has been sold to Carolyn Brody. (Christine Spektor had sold the Southampton to former employees last November.) Owner of R.J. Julia in Madison, CT Roxanne Coady and her team will manage operations at the store. BookHampton will close “for a short while” for renovations and plans a grand opening for the summer season. Brody is chairman emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has worked in finance and real estate in a number of roles. She says in the announcement, “BookHampton is a treasure trove, a rich environment for all the arts. I am thrilled to […]
Amazon’s La Jolla Bookstore to Open This Summer
After advertising for bookstore staff for a new outpost in “the La Jolla or San Diego area,” it’s now clear that Amazon Books will open a store in La Jolla’s Westfield UTC mall, “coming this summer.” The San Diego Union Tribune shows a picture of the space under renovation with Amazon Books displayed prominently on the outside. Company spokesperson Sarah Gelman confirms to the paper, “We are excited to be bringing Amazon Books to the University Towne Center Mall in San Diego and we are currently hiring store managers and associates. Stay tuned for additional details down the road.” The new […]
People, Etc.
Sam Im has been promoted to director, digital strategy & business development at Random House Children’s. Adrienne Szpyrka has been promoted to editor at Sky Pony Press. Rachel Zugschwert has joined Sparkhouse Family as director of marketing. Previously, she was marketing manager at Consortium. In Amazon‘s continuing rollout of staffed “pickup locations” on college campuses, the company announced an agreement to open a facility at the University of Texas at Austin in summer 2016. (In January, they announced new locations for the University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley. Obituary Former literary agent Ginger Barber, […]
People, Etc.
Edward Benitez has joined HarperCollins’ Spanish language publishing program as senior acquisitions editor for Harper Espan͂ol, Grupo Nelson and Editorial Vida, reporting to Larry Downs and working out of the company’s offices in Nashville. Most recently, Benitez served as the director for US Spanish language sales for Penguin Random House. Richard Callison has been appointed director, international online & digital sales, Penguin Random House international sales and marketing. He previously was an associate publisher at Random House. Jade Yeung has joined little bee books as production coordinator. Previously she was a production associate at Norton. Courtney Miller-Callihan has opened her own […]