Barnes & Noble’s 2017 Holiday Book Drive program collected 1.6 million books for local charities

NEW YORK, NY, 2018-Jan-15 — /EPR Retail News/ — Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest retail bookseller, today (January 8, 2018) announced that it collected approximately 1.6 million books during its 2017 Holiday Book Drive program. The books are being donated to more than 650 local charities across the country that provide services to children.

The donation was made possible through the generous support of Barnes & Noble customers, who purchased books for donation at Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide between November 1, 2017, and January 1, 2018. Community partners are distributing the books collected to hospitals, schools, literacy organizations and social service organizations.

“The annual Holiday Book Drive is a key initiative for us every year, and our customers once again came through by donating approximately 1.6 million books to kids in need this holiday season,” said Tracy Vidakovich, Vice President of Business Development for Barnes & Noble. “We are always amazed to see the generosity of our customers and want to thank them for giving kids of every background the chance to read.”

Local recipients from the Holiday Book Drive include: Toys for Tots; Children’s Aid Society; Big Brothers Big Sisters; the YMCA; Salvation Army; First Book; children’s hospitals from around the country; Reach Out & Read; Ronald McDonald House; Head Start; United Way; various school districts, schools and public libraries; and hundreds of other deserving organizations.

About Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products.  The Company operates 632 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com).  The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store features more than 4.5 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com), plus periodicals and comics, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers® and Barnes & Noble.com® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on TwitterInstagramPinterest and Snapchat (bnsnaps), and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

All Contacts:
Mary Ellen Keating
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3323
mkeating@bn.com

Alex Ortolani
Director, Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3379
aortolani@bn.com

Source: Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble survey: Americans turn to books on Thanksgiving Eve more than any other day of the year

National Poll Conducted by Barnes & Noble Finds Most Americans Turn to a Good Read to Get Through Stressful Holiday Travels

New York, 2017-Nov-14 — /EPR Retail News/ — Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest retail bookseller, recently commissioned an independent survey to explore consumer reading habits around the holiday season, and the results revealed that Americans turn to books and periodicals on Thanksgiving Eve more than any other day of the year to help ease the stress of traveling. Historically, the Thanksgiving holiday is the busiest travel time of the year, notorious for transportation delays burdening travelers at every turn.

“The holiday season is an exciting, but hectic time for people all over the country. At Barnes & Noble, we know our customers want a stress-free holiday experience, whether shopping for gifts in-store or purchasing a good read to enjoy during their holiday commutes,” says Liz Harwell, Senior Director of Merchandising, Trade Books.  “Knowing that Thanksgiving Eve is the busiest reading day of the year, we’re excited to welcome customers into our stores to take advantage of one-of-a-kind bookseller recommendations and exclusives.”

It’s Official: Thanksgiving Eve Is the Busiest Reading Day of the Year
Holiday travel is often characterized by crowds, delays and traffic jams. However, when survey respondents take the time to read while traveling, 73 percent report that reading makes the trip more relaxing, while 72 percent say reading a book they enjoy makes their trip more enjoyable. Reading is indeed the antidote to holiday travel stress.

  • Over three-fourths of Americans (77 percent) read at least one book, newspaper or magazine during Thanksgiving travel or a typical holiday travel day.
  • Nearly three-fourths of respondents (73 percent) generally think that traveling on Thanksgiving Eve is a good time to bring a book they would enjoy and be able to read.
  • When thinking specifically about traveling on Thanksgiving Eve, 60 percent of travelers typically pack, purchase or borrow reading materials (books, newspaper, magazines, digital books) specifically for their planned travel.
  • Slightly more than one-in-four Americans (28 percent) think that bringing a great book along for Thanksgiving could give them a way to get out of an uncomfortable or awkward conversation with a relative or other guest.

Consumers Look Forward to Reading During Holiday Travel
Because of the hustle and bustle of daily life, particularly during holiday season, more than half of respondents reported that they don’t get to read or enjoy books as much as they would like. In fact, reading tops the list of what most consumers wish they had more time to do, followed by spending time with loved ones and exercise. Travel provides a respite of sorts; 71 percent of respondents think that travel time is a good opportunity to catch up on a good book or magazine they have been meaning to pick up.

Respondents also found that the top five benefits of reading a book while traveling, rated in order, are:

  • Reading is a good pastime if I get delayed while traveling. (56 percent)
  • Reading is relaxing and helps ease the stress of hectic traveling. (53 percent)
  • A good book “transports” me somewhere else. (47 percent)
  • I can catch up on books that I have wanted to read, but normally do not have the time to read. (47 percent)
  • Reading gives me a chance to learn something new. (46 percent)

In addition, when respondents find the time to read a book they enjoy while traveling, 73 percent say that reading makes their trip more relaxing, and 72 percent say reading a book they enjoy while traveling makes their trip more enjoyable. This is a particularly noteworthy finding in today’s travel environment, which is often characterized by stressful and unenjoyable moments.

Holiday Travel Recommendations from Barnes & Noble Booksellers to You

To help travelers make the most of their travel time – whether spending two hours on the road or 10 – Barnes & Noble booksellers can recommend the perfect read. Customers should visit their local Barnes & Noble store and speak with a knowledgeable bookseller or go online at BN.com to find the ideal book that will help them get through their holiday commute.

Methodology

Barnes & Noble commissioned the survey, conducted as an online poll among the U.S. General Population – 18+ years of age, nationwide representative sample (n=1,028). The online poll was conducted October 27-29, 2017, and the margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points ( Confidence Level).

About Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products.  The Company operates 632 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com).  The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store features more than 4.5 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com), plus periodicals and comics, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers® and Barnes & Noble.com® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK®and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on TwitterInstagramPinterest and Snapchat (bnsnaps), and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

All Contacts:

Mary Ellen Keating
Senior Vice President
Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3323
mkeating@bn.com

Mei Sanchez
Manager
Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3579
msanchez@bn.com

Source: Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble unveils its exclusive assortment of books, toys & games, gifts for the holiday season

  • Barnes & Noble Stores Nationwide Gearing up for the Holiday Season with Exclusive Assortment of Books, Toys & Games, Gifts and More
  • The Company Makes Gifting Effortless with Its Holiday Gift Guide and Unique Online Tools Including SmartGift and Book Graph™
  • Barnes & Noble Once Again Encourages Customers to Join in the Holiday Book Drive to Help Kids in Need This Holiday Season

New York, NY, 2017-Nov-02 — /EPR Retail News/ — Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today (November 1, 2017) unveiled its exclusive assortment of books, toys & games, gifts and other merchandise for the holiday season. The Company also announced that it is making the shopping experience easier this year for customers, whether they are shopping in store or online at BN.com, with its Holiday Gift Guide and a suite of smart tools including SmartGift and Book Graph From the season’s biggest books to the top toys to dedicated trend shops for major properties such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and FAO Schwarz, shoppers will find what they’re looking for at Barnes & Noble this holiday season.

“We know the holiday season is a busy and challenging time for shoppers trying to find perfect gifts to inspire their loved ones,” said Demos Parneros, CEO at Barnes & Noble. “Our goal this year was to curate an assortment of exclusive books and other products to make shopping easier and gifting more meaningful.”

Mr. Parneros added, “The Company will engage customers in a social media campaign throughout the holiday season around the theme #ALLIWANT, as part of an effort to highlight the great assortment of gifts that can be found at Barnes & Noble.

Holiday Exclusives

Barnes & Noble has exclusive editions of some of the most anticipated and biggest books of the season that can’t be found anywhere else. For the Star Wars super fan who wants to make the enjoyment of The Force a family tradition, there’s the Star Wars Beginning Reader Collectible Box Sets, exclusive to Barnes & Noble. For the aspiring chef, Barnes & Noble offers exclusive cookbooks, such as The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It!,  by Food Network star Ree Drummond including an additional 16 pages of recipes, photos and more. For the friend who loves thrillers, customers can gift the exclusive hardcover edition of Michael Connelly’s new title Two Kinds of Truth, featuring an exclusive personal essay from the author on the real-life crime that led him to become a writer of crime fiction. Other big exclusives available this holiday season include:

Books

  • Art of Harry Potter, book exclusive featuring rare and unpublished works of art, available November 21
  • Atlas Obscura with a stunning pull-out travel poster
  • Shea Serrano’s Basketball (and Other Things), with exclusive basketball cards featuring the greatest fictional characters to ever play
  • David Baldacci’s End Game, with an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview, available November 14
  • Guinness World Records 2018, with an exclusive poster of the record-breaking, gadget-filled Batman suit
  • James Patterson’s People vs. Alex Cross, including the bonus Alex Cross Novella Cross Kill, available November 20
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter’s Hamilton: The Revolution, exclusive deluxe edition including a bonus CD featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda, artifact reproductions, portraits and more, available November 14
  • Walking Dead: Here’s Negan, with an exclusive variant cover and Walking Dead issue #100 with variant cover
  • Lemony Snicket’s The Bad Beginning: Book the First, exclusive and beautifully designed edition featuring author notes

Toys & Games

  • Barnsie® & Noble® – Our customer-favorite bear and puppy are only $9.95 each, with the purchase of any item.

Specialty and Gift

  • Earth Luxe Purifying Ultrasonic Diffuser – Crafted to purify the air by attracting known allergens while offering an addition to your home’s décor.
  • Peace Collection – Featuring a cotton knit throw, a selection of festive reading socks and a felt tote, all designed to highlight messages of mindfulness.

Entertainment

  • Exclusive Turntable and Bluetooth speaker bundle from Crosley
  • Exclusive vinyl editions including:
    • Picture disc of the perennial holiday favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas
    • Cover and colored white vinyl edition of Colors from Beck
    • Color edition of Charlotte’s Web pink pig vinyl with black webbing orange
  • Barnes & Noble is the exclusive retailer for the vinyl soundtracks of The Sound Of Musicand Into The Woods
  • An exclusive 3-disc collection of the Pentatonix holiday CDs

Holiday Gift Guide

This year, Barnes & Noble has enhanced its online Holiday Gift Guide by segmenting it into smartly, curated lists that reflect the common questions customers ask booksellers in-store, making gift-giving a more seamless experience. Gift Guide users can browse topics like “Enchanting Gifts for Harry Potter Fans,” “Gift Ideas for Collectors,” and “Captivating Books for the History Buff” to tailor gifts to the hobbies and interests of any and every gift recipient. Customers shopping for little ones can browse lists like “Best Gifts for Pre-Schoolers,” which includes classic books such as Women Who Changed the World: 50 Amazing Americans – or quirky renditions of the classic tale, like Goodnight Football. Barnes & Noble Gift Guide users can also find this season’s hottest toys and games, like the Town Santa’s Winter Holiday LEGO® set, and much more.

Smart Tools

Barnes & Noble has unveiled a brand-new suite of Smart Tools to help customers find meaningful gifts online at BN.com through fun interactions rooted in the bookstore experience of browsing, discovery and bookseller knowledge. The tools available this holiday season are:

  • Book Graph – Those unsure of what to give loved ones this season can turn to Barnes & Noble’s new interactive discovery tool, Book Graph. It’s simple: from any desktop computer, shoppers click on a title and Book Graph displays a matrix of titles, allowing them to discover unexpected connections between one book and the next. That’s the magic of Book Graph at work – the discoverability of new book titles allows customers to browse an array of perfect gift options for everyone on their list.
  • SmartGift – Available on desktop and mobile, SmartGift allows a customer to send a meaningful gift without worrying if it’s exactly right, because the recipient has the freedom to exchange for a similarly priced item to make it their perfect gift.

“We are excited about the unveiling of our new suite of Smart Tools that emulate the bookstore experience of browsing, discovery and bookseller knowledge, and will help online shoppers find meaningful, smartly curated gifts to give this holiday season,” said Fred Argir, Chief Digital Officer at Barnes & Noble. “From gifts by age or profession to interests running the gamut from anime, food, fantasy, puzzles, pets and more, our specially curated Holiday Gift Guide will offer inspiration and ideas for every customer’s shopping list.”

Holiday Book Drive Program

Barnes & Noble is bringing back their annual Holiday Book Drive program at stores nationwide, a favorite with both customers and booksellers. From now until January 1, 2018,  customers can come into their local Barnes & Noble and purchase books for donation, benefitting organizations that support children in need. This year, Instagram sensation Hot Dudes Reading has partnered with the Company on behalf of their holiday campaign, stating “Barnes & Noble is a brand that has always been influential and close to our hearts. This year, we’re proud to be partnering with Barnes & Noble in the hope of encouraging our followers to not only shop at B&N, but to gift a book to the Holiday Book Drive that supports local charities across the country that provide services to disadvantaged children.”

Local recipients from the Holiday Book Drive include: Toys for Tots; Children’s Aid Society; Big Brothers Big Sisters; the YMCA; Salvation Army; First Book; children’s hospitals from around the country; Reach Out & Read; Ronald McDonald House; Head Start; United Way; various school districts, schools and public libraries; and hundreds of other deserving organizations.

Customers are invited to Barnes & Noble’s 632 stores nationwide and browse the online Holiday Gift Guide at BN.com to discover the hottest books and other great gift items available this holiday season. And for even greater value, customers are invited to join the Barnes & Noble Member program. Designed for Barnes & Noble’s most loyal customers, the Barnes & Noble Membership program gives Members 40 off all hardcover bestsellers and 10 off virtually everything else in Barnes & Noble stores throughout the year. Join the conversation on your favorite social channel by using #ALLIWANT.

About Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world’s largest bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products.  The Company operates 632 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com).  The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®. The NOOK Store features more than 4.5 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com), plus periodicals and comics, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers® and Barnes & Noble.com® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on TwitterInstagramPinterest and Snapchat (bnsnaps), and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

All Contacts:
Mary Ellen Keating
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3323
mkeating@bn.com

Alan McNamara
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3379
amcnamara@bn.com

Source: Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Amazon shares which books are being read and sold the most through its newly launched Amazon Charts

Amazon shares which books are being read and sold the most through its newly launched Amazon Charts

 

A reimagined bestseller list that shares how we read today

SEATTLE, 2017-May-19 — /EPR Retail News/ — Amazon today (May 18, 2017) launched Amazon Charts, a reimagined weekly bestseller list that shares which books are being read the most and which books have sold the most across all formats each week. The Top 20 Most Read is the first ever bestseller list to measure the books millions of Amazon.com customers are really reading and listening to by looking at the average number of daily Kindle readers and Audible listeners. The Top 20 Most Sold list ranks the most books sold, pre-ordered or borrowed each week from Amazon.com, Audible.com and Amazon Books. Amazon Charts include data across all reading formats – whether books are bought or borrowed, listened to or read – to accurately reflect how readers are really reading and buying books today. To see which books made the inaugural Top 20 Most Read and Top 20 Most Sold fiction and nonfiction Amazon Charts, visit: www.amazon.com/charts.

“When friends make a book recommendation, they recommend books they are really reading and loving,” said David Naggar, vice president, Amazon. “Many well-known bestseller lists today add, remove, or re-rank books based on editorial considerations and customers have asked for a bestseller list that is based on reading engagement and sales data, rather than an opinion-based list of what books they should be paying attention to. We’re excited to give book lovers Amazon Charts to help them discover their next great read.”

Key Amazon Charts features include:

  • What’s really being read: Amazon Charts Top 20 Most Read is the first list to rank books by the average number of daily Kindle readers and daily Audible listeners each week – giving customers the opportunity to see what’s actively being read or listened to every week.
  • What’s really being bought or borrowed: Amazon Charts Top 20 Most Sold ranks books according to the number of copies sold and pre-ordered through Amazon.com, Audible.com and Amazon Books stores and books borrowed from Amazon’s subscription programs such as Kindle Unlimited, Audible.com, and Prime Reading.
  • The stories behind the books: When exploring Amazon Charts, readers can browse fun insights into how other readers are reacting to each book. From which books were Most Anticipated according to the rate of customer pre-orders, to which Kindle books were simply Unputdownable, according to how quickly customers read a book from cover to cover.

“Amazon Charts is exactly what we need,” said Patricia Cornwell. “Exciting and forward thinking, it will accurately represent what people are reading and investing their time into.”

Customers can now also stay up to date on what the latest trending books are with Amazon Charts on Alexa. Whether you are heading out the door to start your commute or have your hands full while packing for an upcoming flight, Alexa makes it easy to stay informed and find your next book. Just say, “Alexa, what are the most popular books this week?” to learn about books on this week’s Amazon Charts.

To learn more and see which books made the inaugural Top 20 Most Read and Top 20 Most Sold fiction and nonfiction Amazon Charts visit: www.amazon.com/charts.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Media Hotline:

206-266-7180
Amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr

Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

###

Huge selection of the best gifts for Mother’s Day at Barnes & Noble

New York, NY, 2016-May-05 — /EPR Retail News/ — Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the nation’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced a huge selection of the best gifts for Mother’s Day. Customers can find the perfect book for Mom from Barnes & Noble’s huge selection in store and online, or with just-announced deals on NOOK including the 7-Inch Samsung Galaxy Tab® 4 NOOK® available for an incredible value of only $119.99. Other fantastic offers include 50% off a leading selection of DVDs Mom will love, 30% off Illume candles & scents inspired by fragrances and colors from around the world, and so much more.

Find Mom the Perfect Book this Mother’s Day
Books make the perfect gift for Mother’s Day, and Barnes & Noble is the premier destination for the biggest books in fiction including The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, The Last Mile by David Baldacci, Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen, The Obsession by Nora Roberts, Most Wanted by Lisa Scottoline, Private Paris by James Patterson, and more. Mom will also love special gift books just for her including The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt, It’s All Easy by Gwyneth Paltrow, First Women by Kate Andersen Brower, Dream Home by Jonathan and Drew Scott and Becoming Grandma by Lesley Stahl.

For Moms who love to cook, Barnes & Noble is offering Make It Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten for only $14.99 with the purchase of any item. And for artistic Moms, Barnes & Noble offers a diverse selection of adult coloring books, including the newest from Millie Marotta, Wild Savannah, as well as My Mother, My Heart: A Joyful Book to Color by Eleri Fowler. Barnes & Noble also offers high-quality artist supplies that facilitate creative expression and the therapeutic effects it inspires.

Surprise Mom with NOOK at Great Values
Barnes & Noble has several great NOOK offers for Mother’s Day, including the 7-Inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK for only $119.99 with a $30 instant rebate through Mother’s Day. The customer-favorite device comes with a free film to protect the screen. Also through Mother’s Day, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK® will be available for only $299.99 with a $100 instant rebate. And Members will receive an additional 10% off the discounted prices of both these devices.

In addition, all NOOK accessories are 25% off through Mother’s Day, so Mom can read stylishly as she makes the transition from physical to digital books or upgrades to a newer device.

Thoughtful & Beautiful Gifts for Mom
Barnes & Noble has a fabulous assortment of stylish gifts that Moms will love, including pouches, scarves, stationery and writing tools from the Barnes & Noble Exclusive English Garden collection. The assortment features everlasting blooms and hand-painted artwork of peonies and butterflies, as well as complementary products from favorite brands Michel Design Works and Kate Spade New York.

In addition, Barnes & Noble offers the best and biggest selection of more than 600 journals featuring decorative and inspirational designs.

Plus, for Moms who love to be pampered, Barnes & Noble is offering 30% off a selection of more than 30 candles, lotions, room sprays and soaps from Illume. Inspired by fragrances and colors from around the world, and featuring the latest introduction, Blackberry Absinthe, a luxurious blend of blackberries, Egyptian jasmine, sandalwood amber and vanilla. Illume candles are 100% natural soy-based and hand poured in the United States.

DVDs and Vinyl Mom Can’t Get Enough Of
Barnes & Noble is offering 50% off a specially curated selection of DVDs perfect for Mother’s Day, including Oscar-nominated films like Brooklyn and The Danish Girl, in addition to Carol, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, Pride and Prejudice, and more.

Plus, Barnes & Noble offers a vast selection of vinyl including 25 from Adele, Cleopatra [B&N Exclusive Clear Vinyl] by The Lumineers, Gift Of Love [B&N Exclusive 2 LP Pink Vinyl] by Bette Midler, This Path Tonight by Graham Nash and more.

Indulge Mom’s Sweet Tooth with Treats from the Café
The Barnes & Noble Café has a vast assortment of chocolates and sweet treats beautifully packaged just for any special occasion, including the classic Godiva® Collection, which has a well-rounded assortment of creamy caramels, velvety ganaches, nuts and fruits in milk, and dark and white chocolate starting at $15. Plus, Barnes & Noble’s seasonal assortment of Harry & David offers an impressive selection from its signature Moose Munch, to Chocolate Covered Cherries and Pretzels, attractively packaged in light and dark pastels and starting at only $4.95.

For Moms who love tea, the Harney & Sons “Royal Teas” collection, created by invitation of the Queen, makes the perfect gift and is available for only $10.95 in black, green and herbal infusions.

The Barnes & Noble Café features a notable spectrum of Starbucks® coffees from light (Veranda) to bold (French) starting at only $11.95.  As an added feature, the Café can grind coffee per customers’ specific coffee brewing styles.
And to round out any Mother’s Day celebration, Barnes & Noble offers cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory Bakery® The Dream Factory Desserts, for only $40.

Finishing Touches and More 
To help customers send greetings to the favorite people in their lives, Barnes & Noble is offering a special in-store only promotion of buy 3 greetings cards, get the 4th card free. With nearly 130 Mother’s Day-themed cards, featuring classic designs to modern pop-ups, Barnes & Noble offers a comprehensive selection of sentiments for every Mom.

Barnes & Noble is also offering its floral bouquet canvas totes for only $12.95 each with the purchase of any item. The floral bouquet canvas tote is available in purple, yellow, blue and pink, and makes the perfect gift holder, or a great accessory to help Mom live more stylishly.

Barnes & Noble stores nationwide are also offering a Mother’s Day Storytime on Saturday, May 7, at 11 a.m. so the little ones can celebrate Mom. Featured titles are Mom School by Rebecca Van Slyke and Priscilla Burris and How to Babysit a Grandma by Jean Reagan and Lee Wildish.

And, of course, a Barnes & Noble Gift Card is always an excellent gift, allowing the recipient to choose from a wide selection of bestselling books, NOOK content, DVDs, music, gift items including exclusive home décor and stylish accessories, plus unbeatable bargains.

For more Mother’s Day information, customers should visit www.bn.com/mothersday or ask one of the knowledgeable booksellers at their local store

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is a Fortune 500 company, the nation’s largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products.  The Company operates 640 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com).  The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store®.The NOOK Store features more than 4 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com), plus periodicals and comics, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ available for Android™, iOS® and Windows®.General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company’s corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers®, Barnes & Noble.com® and Discover Great New Writers® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.For more information on Barnes & Noble, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, and like us on Facebook. For more information on NOOK, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Contacts:

Mary Ellen Keating
Senior Vice President
Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3323
mkeating@bn.com

Alan McNamara
Director
Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3379
amcnamara@bn.com

Source: Barnes & Noble, Inc

UK: Costa announces the shortlists for the 2015 Costa Book Awards

LONDON, 2015-11-25 — /EPR Retail News/ — Costatoday announces the shortlists for the 2015 Costa Book Awards.

The Costa Book Awards is the only major UK book prize that is open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland and also, uniquely, recognises the most enjoyable books across five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book – published in the last year.

Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread Plc, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of one of the UK’s most prestigious book prizes in 2006. 2015 marks the 44th year of the Book Awards.

This year’s Costa Book Awards attracted 638 entries. Judges on this year’s panels (three per category) included writers Matt Haig, Louise Doughty and Martyn Bedford, poet and children’s author Julia Copus and biographer and broadcaster Penny Junor.

Winners in the five categories, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on Monday 4th January 2016. The overall winner of the 2015 Costa Book of the Year will receive £30,000 and will be selected and announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in central London on Tuesday 26th January 2016.

“The quality and breadth of talent and writing in this year’s lists is staggering and there is something here for everyone,” commented Christopher Rogers, Managing Director of Costa. “I’m looking forward to reading the books and don’t envy the judges task of whittling these fantastic shortlists down to just one winner per category.”

The winner of the Costa Short Story Award, voted for by the public, will also be announced at the ceremony. The shortlisted six stories for the Costa Short Story Award, now in its fourth year, will be revealed on the Costa Book Awards website, www.costabookawards.com, on Monday 30th November.

Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won eleven times by a novel, five times by a first novel, six times by a biography, seven times by a collection of poetry and once by a children’s book. The 2014 Costa Book of the Year was H is for Hawk by writer, poet and historian, Helen Macdonald.

To be eligible for the 2015 Costa Book Awards, books must have been first published in the

UK or Ireland between 1 November 2014 and 31 October 2015 and their authors resident in

the UK for the previous three years.

Full details of the shortlists follow.

For additional information please visit www.costabookawards.com.

For further press information, to request an interview with an author, or for book jacket or author images, please contact:

Amanda Johnson

Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity

Telephone: 07715 922 180 (mobile)

Email: amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com

Twitter: @CostaBookAwards

COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2015 SHORTLISTS

2015 Costa Novel Award shortlist

Kate Atkinson A God in Ruins Doubleday
Anne Enright The Green Road Jonathan Cape
Patrick Gale A Place Called Winter Tinder Press
Melissa Harrison At Hawthorn Time Bloomsbury

2015 Costa First Novel Award shortlist

Sara Baume Spill Simmer Falter Wither Windmill Books
Kate Hamer The Girl in the Red Coat Faber & Faber
Andrew Michael Hurley The Loney John Murray
Tasha Kavanagh Things We Have in Common Canongate

2015 Costa Biography Award shortlist

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland Harvill Secker
Thomas Harding The House by the Lake William Heinemann
Ruth Scurr John Aubrey: My Own Life Chatto & Windus
Andrea Wulf The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science John Murray

2015 Costa Poetry Award shortlist

Andrew McMillan Physical Jonathan Cape
Kate Miller The Observances Carcanet
Don Paterson 40 Sonnets Faber & Faber
Neil Rollinson Talking Dead Jonathan Cape

2015 Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist

Frances Hardinge The Lie Tree Macmillan Children’s Books
Hayley Long Sophie Someone Hot Key Books
Sally Nicholls An Island of Our Own Scholastic
Andrew Norriss Jessica’s Ghost David Fickling Books

Shortlist for the 2015 Costa Novel Award

(177 entries)

Judges

Louise Doughty Novelist

David Headley Managing Director, Goldsboro BooksCathy Rentzenbrink Books Editor, The Bookseller; Director, Quick Reads

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)

Kate Atkinson’s last novel, Life After Life, explored the possibility of infinite chances, as Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy – would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. Spanning back and forth across his lifetime, Teddy’s story offers not the dizzying concept of multiple possibilities but the painful reality of a life quietly lived. A life of courage and warfare, but also of words unspoken, of secret heartbreak and missed opportunities. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.

Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her four bestselling novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became the BBC television seriesCase Histories, starring Jason Isaacs. Her last novel, Life After Life, was the winner of the Costa Novel Award and the South Bank Sky Arts Literature Prize and was also voted Book of the Year for both the UK and the US Booksellers Associations. She was appointed MBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday HonoursList, and was voted Waterstones UK Author of the Year at the 2013 Specsavers National Book Awards.

Judges: “An ambitious piece of storytelling that will entertain and delight.”

The Green Road by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)

The children of Rosaleen Madigan leave the west of Ireland for lives they never could have imagined in Dublin, New York and various third-world towns. In her early old age their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she’s decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for a last Christmas with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published two collections of stories, collected as Yesterday’s Weather, one book of non-fiction, Making Babies, and five novels, including The Forgotten Waltz and The Gathering, which was the Irish Novel of the Year, and won the Irish Fiction Award and the 2007 Man Booker Prize. In January 2015 she was announced as the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction.

Judges: “A masterful portrait of a fractured family told in stark yet sparkling prose.’

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale (Tinder Press)

A privileged elder son and stammeringly shy, Harry Cane has followed convention at every step. Even the beginnings of an illicit, dangerous affair do little to shake the foundations of his muted existence – until the shock of discovery and the threat of arrest cost him everything. Forced to abandon his wife and child, Harry signs up for emigration to the newly colonised Canadian prairies. Remote and unforgiving, his allotted homestead in a place called Winter is a world away from the golden suburbs of turn-of-the-century Edwardian England. And yet it is here, isolated in a seemingly harsh landscape, under the threat of war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism that the fight for survival will reveal in Harry an inner strength and capacity for love beyond anything he has ever known before.

Patrick Gale was born on the Isle of Wight. He now lives on a farm near Land’s End. His most recent works are A Perfectly Good Man, The Whole Day Through and the Richard and Judy bestseller Notes From An Exhibition, which sold over 300,000 copies in the UK alone.

Judges: “A sensitive, beautifully structured story of loss, fear, exile and hope.”

At Hawthorn Time by Melissa Harrison (Bloomsbury)

Howard and Kitty have recently moved to Lodeshill after a life spent in London; now, their marriage is wordlessly falling apart. Custom car enthusiast Jamie has lived in the village for all of his nineteen years and dreams of leaving it behind, while Jack, a vagrant farm-worker and mystic in flight from a bail hostel, arrives in the village on foot one spring morning, bringing change. All four of them are struggling to find a life in the modern countryside; all are trying to find ways to belong.

Melissa Harrisonis a freelance writer, occasional photographer and a columnist for The Times, the Weekend FT and the Guardian. Her debut novel Clay, published in 2013, was the winner of Portsmouth First Fiction Award, and selected for Amazon’s ‘Rising Stars’ programme and by Ali Smith as a Book of the Year. She lives in South London.

Judges: “Moving, atmospheric, quietly compelling and at times, heartbreaking.”

Shortlist for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award

(116 entries)

Judges

Hannah Beckerman Author and Journalist

Lauren Hadden Deputy Editor, Psychologies Magazine

Matt Haig Writer

Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume (Windmill Books)

A misfit man finds a misfit dog. Ray, aged fifty-seven, ‘too old for starting over, too young for giving up’, and One Eye, a vicious little bugger, smaller than expected, a good ratter. Both are accustomed to being alone, unloved, outcast – but they quickly find in each other a strange companionship of sorts. As spring turns to summer, their relationship grows and intensifies, until a savage act forces them to abandon the precarious life they’d established, and take to the road.

Sara Baumewas born in Lancashire and grew up in Co. Cork. She studied fine art and creative writing and her short fiction has been published in journals such as The Stinging Fly magazine and the Dublin Review. She won the 2014 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award and the 2015 Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. She now lives in Cork with her two dogs.

Judges: “A tough but tender, brilliant read full of fresh wonder. One to cherish.”

The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer (Faber & Faber)

Eight-year-old Carmel has always been different – sensitive, distracted, with a heart-stopping tendency to go missing. Her mother Beth, newly single, worries about her daughter’s strangeness, especially as she is trying to rebuild a life for the two of them on her own. When she takes Carmel for an outing to a local festival, her worst fear is realised: Carmel disappears into the crowd. Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth embarks on a mission to find her. Meanwhile, Carmel begins an extraordinary and terrifying journey of her own. But do the real clues to Carmel’s disappearance lie in the otherworldly qualities her mother had only begun to guess at?

Kate Hamer grew up in Pembrokeshire. She went to art college and then on to study History of Art at Manchester University. After graduating in 1988, she worked in television for over ten years, mainly on documentaries. In 2011, she did a Creative Writing MA at Aberystwyth University and the Curtis Brown Creative Novel Writing course. She won the 2011 Rhys Davies Short Story Award and her winning story, One Summer, was broadcast on Radio 4. She has recently been awarded a Literature Wales bursary. She lives in Cardiff with her husband and two children.

Judges: “An exquisitely-written, insightful and wise book about mothers, daughters, loss and hope. An unputdownable read.”

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (John Murray)

‘If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney – that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest. It was impossible to truly know the place. It changed with each influx and retreat, and the neap tides would reveal the skeletons of those who thought they could escape its insidious currents. No one ever went near the water. No one apart from us, that is. I suppose I always knew that what happened there wouldn’t stay hidden forever, no matter how much I wanted it to. No matter how hard I tried to forget . . .’

Andrew Michael Hurley has lived in Manchester and London, and is now based in Lancashire, where he teaches English Literature and Creative Writing. He has had two collections of short stories published by Lime Tree Press. Stephen King has called The Loney, Hurley’s debut novel, ‘an amazing piece of fiction’.

Judges: “A truly suspenseful page-turner with immense depth. Unforgettable.”

Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh (Canongate)

“The first time I saw you, you were standing at the far end of the playing field. You were looking down at your brown straggly dog, but then you looked up, your mouth going slack as your eyes clocked her. Alice Taylor. I was no different. I used to catch myself gazing at the back of her head in class, at her silky fair hair swaying between her shoulder blades. If you’d glanced just once across the field you’d have seen me standing in the middle on my own, looking straight at you, and you’d have gone back through the trees to the path quick, tugging your dog after you. You’d have known you’d given yourself away, even if only to me. But you didn’t. You only had eyes for Alice.”

Tasha Kavanagh worked in film editing for ten years, on features including Twelve Monkeys, Seven Years in Tibet andThe Talented Mr Ripley. She has an MA in Creative Writing from UEA. She has published several children’s books under her maiden name, Tasha Pym. She lives in Hertfordshire with her family. Things We Have in Common was shortlisted for the 2015 Guardian Not the Booker Prize.

Judges: “An insightful, compellingly-plotted novel about teenage obsession and isolation. An exceptionally assured debut with a captivating voice.”

Shortlist for the 2015 Costa Biography Award

(112 entries)

Judges

Simon Heafield Marketing Manager, Foyles

Penny Junor Journalist, Biographer and Broadcaster

Jane Shilling Author and Critic

The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Harvill Secker)

Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage – a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject: of Charles Dodgson, the quiet academic, and his second self, Lewis Carroll – storyteller, innovator and avid collector of ‘child-friends’. And of his ‘dream-child’, Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.This is their secret story: a history of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man’s need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst was born in 1968 and lives in Oxford where he is a Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College. His most recent book, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist, won the Duff Cooper Prize for Biography.

Judges: “This sparkling account opens doors into the life of one of the most enigmatic of 19th century writers and the inspiration behind his iconic creation.”

The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding (William Heinemann)

In the spring of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Berlin with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake. It was her ‘soul place’, she said – a sanctuary she had been forced to leave when the Nazis swept to power. The trip was a chance to see the house one last time, to remember it as it was. But the house had changed. Twenty years later Thomas returned to Berlin. The house now stood empty, derelict, soon to be demolished. A concrete footpath cut through the garden, marking where the Berlin Wall had stood for nearly three decades. Elsewhere were signs of what the house had once been – blue tiles showing behind wallpaper, photographs fallen between floorboards, flagstones covered in dirt. Evidence of five families who had made the house their home over a tumultuous century.

Thomas Harding is a journalist who has written for several publications including the Sunday Times, Financial Times, Washington Post and the Guardian. He co-founded a television station in Oxford, and for many years was an award-winning publisher of a newspaper in West Virginia. He is also the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Hanns and Rudolf which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Award. Thomas lives in Hampshire with his wife and daughter.

Judges: “With the pace of a thriller, and a wholly original perspective, this book offers an unforgettable and touching account of life in Germany throughout the turbulent 20thcentury.”

John Aubrey: My Own Life by Ruth Scurr (Chatto & Windus)

John Aubrey loved England. From an early age, he saw his England slipping away and, against extraordinary odds, committed himself to preserving for posterity what remained of it – in books, monuments and life stories. His Brief Lives would redefine the art of biography, yet he published only one rushed, botched book in his lifetime and died fearing his name and achievements would be forgotten. Ruth Scurr’s biography is an act of scholarly imagination: a diary drawn from John Aubrey’s own words, displaying his unique voice, dry wit, the irreverence and drama of a literary innovator.

Ruth Scurr is a historian, biographer and literary critic. She teaches history and politics at Cambridge University, where she is a Lecturer and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. Her first book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and was listed among the 100 Best Books of the Decade in The Times. She reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, theDaily Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal.

Judges: “We were all beguiled and charmed by this hugely original take on the life of one of the 17th century’s most engaging chroniclers.”

The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf (John Murray)

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist. More things have been named after him than anyone who has ever lived – towns, rivers, mountain ranges, a penguin, a giant squid and even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. He inspired generations of thinkers and writers – Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt, Napoleon was jealous of him and Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seaowned all of his books. Yet today he is almost forgotten. The Invention of Nature brings this remarkable man back to life.

Andrea Wulf was born in India, moved to Germany as a child, and now lives in England. She is the author of several acclaimed books. The Brother Gardeners was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and Founding Gardeners was on the New York Times bestseller list. Andrea has written for many newspapers including the Guardian, LA Times andNew York Times. She was the Eccles British Library Writer-in-Residence 2013 and a three-time fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.

Judges: “An extraordinary book about an extraordinary man – written with pace, passion and panache.”

Shortlist for the 2015 Costa Poetry Award

(84 entries)

Judges

Julia Copus Poet and Children’s Author

Adam Newey Poetry Critic

Melanie Prince Co-Owner of The Poetry Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

Physical by Andrew McMillan (Jonathan Cape)

Raw and urgent, these poems are hymns to the male body – to male friendship and male love – muscular, sometimes shocking, but always deeply moving. We are witness here to an almost religious celebration of the flesh: a flesh vital with the vulnerability of love and loss, to desire and its departure. In an extraordinary blend of McMillan’s own colloquial Yorkshire rhythms with a sinewy, Metaphysical music and Thom Gunn’s torque and speed – ‘your kiss was deep enough to stand in’ – the poems in this first collection confront what it is to be a man and interrogate the very idea of masculinity.

Andrew McMillan was born in South Yorkshire in 1988 and lectures in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University. In 2014 he won a Northern Writers’ Award. He currently lives in Manchester. Physical recently won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize for Best First Collection and is also shortlisted for the 2015 GuardianFirst Book Award, only the second book of poetry to have achieved that.

Judges: “A powerful and tender collection that communicates the complexity of desire and of what it is to be male.”

The Observances by Kate Miller (Carcanet)

As its title suggests, with the intertwining practices of watchfulness and remembrance, these poems sustain their course. They follow an urge to locate in language, however tentatively, elements of a world that change or fade. Within her landscapes, the attentive eye and ear preserve the subject, fixing it in time and memory, renewing – through compulsive inspection – faith in the unresolved, even – in what Elizabeth Bishop called ‘self-forgetful’ attention – at the poet’s own expense.

Kate Miller grew up in Hampshire and now lives in London. She studied Art History at King’s College, Cambridge, and Fine Art at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, London. In 2012 she completed a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she taught in the English Department. This is her first volume of poetry, although some of her poems were selected for the 2011 and 2013 Salt Best British Poetry anthologies and have also appeared in journals including Poetry Review and the TLS. She has received a number of awards for them, including the 2008 Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize.

Judges: “A remarkably assured debut – painterly, sensuous and sonically vibrant.”

40 Sonnets by Don Paterson (Faber & Faber)

While some take a traditional form, and some are highly experimental, all the poems in this collection display the cool intelligence and lyric gift that has been the hallmark of Paterson’s work since his first book, Nil Nil, in 1993. Addressed to friends and strangers, the living and the dead, to children, poets, musicians and dogs – as well to as the author himself – these poems display an ambition in their scope and tonal range matched by the breadth of their concerns. In 40 Sonnets, Paterson returns to his central themes: contradiction and strangeness, tension and transformation, the dream world and the divided self.

Don Paterson was born in Dundee in 1963. His previous poetry collections include Nil Nil, God’s Gift to Women andThe Eyes which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award – which he subsequently won in 2003 for Landing Light. Rain, his most recent collection, won the Forward Prize for Best Collection. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2009. He teaches at the University of St Andrews, and also works as an editor and musician. He lives in Edinburgh.

Judges: “Graceful, moving and intelligent poems that give the impression of effortless achievement. Paterson has spirited away all signs of the necessary struggle with the skill of a master sorcerer.”

Talking Dead by Neil Rollinson (Jonathan Cape)

Like Neil Rollinson’s earlier books, Talking Dead is a refreshment of the senses: lifting the lid on the human condition in a heartfelt celebration of the act of being, whether in moments of love or mortality, sex or feasting. As provocative, sensual and subversive as ever, these poems seek and find the numinous in the everyday: some element of ritual or wonder that transforms experience. Although the spectre of darkness is never far away, it is the spirit of pleasure that endures, and we discover to our delight, as DH Lawrence did, that the Dionysian finally prevails over the Apollonian.

Neil Rollinson has published three collections: A Spillage of Mercury (1996), Spanish Fly (2001) and Demolition(2007). He is a past winner of the National Poetry Competition (1997) and recently received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors. He lives and works in Brighton.

Judges: “Heady, exuberant, vibrant, visceral, vivid and at times, very funny.”

Shortlist for the 2015 Costa Children’s Book Award

(149 entries)

Judges

Martyn Bedford Writer

Melissa Cox Head of Children’s Buying for Waterstones

Andrea Reece Managing Editor, Books for Keeps; Children’s Books Reviewer and Specialist

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children’s Books)

When Faith’s father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets. But as Faith’s untruths spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter….

Frances Hardinge spent a large part of her childhood in a huge old house that inspired her to write stories from an early age. She read English at Oxford University, then got a job at a software company. However, a few years later a persistent friend finally managed to bully Frances into sending a few chapters of Fly By Night, her first children’s novel, to a publisher. Macmillan made her an immediate offer. The book went on to be published to huge critical acclaim and win the Branford Boase First Novel Award.

Judges: “A dark, ingenious tale oozing gothic atmosphere.”

Sophie Someone by Hayley Long (Hot Key Books)

Sophie couldn’t spell her own name until she was six. But she’s not stupid. No, she just uses words differently from you and me. She’s fourteen now and she has a story to tell. But some things are difficult to talk about. Even to your best friend. And if you bottle them up you might burst. So here is Sophie’s story. Told the only way she dares tell it. In her own secret language.

Hayley Long began writing teen fiction while working as an English teacher in Cardiff. Her first teen novel, Lottie Biggs is Not Mad was awarded the White Raven label for outstanding children’s literature by the International Youth Library. Since then, her fingers haven’t stopped typing. What’s Up With Jody Barton? was shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Children’s Book Award – won by Sally Gardner’s Maggot Moon, a book that Long has credited as her inspiration forSophie Someone – and Hayley has also enjoyed the razzle-dazzle of being a Queen of Teen nominee. Her first non-fiction title was Being a Girl.

Judges: “A pacy, exuberant story full of wit and charm.”

An Island of Our Own by Sally Nicholls (Scholastic)

Siblings Jonathan, Holly and Davy have been struggling to survive since the death of their mother, and are determined to avoid being taken into care. When the family’s wealthy but eccentric Great-Aunt Irene has a stroke, they go to visit her. Unable to speak or write, she gives Holly some photographs that might lead them to an inheritance that could solve all their problems. But they’re not the only ones after the treasure…

Sally Nicholls was born in Stockton. After finishing school, she worked in Japan, travelled around Australia and New Zealand, before returning to do a degree in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick. In her third year, she enrolled in a Masters in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa. It was here that she wrote her first novel, Ways to Live Forever,which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2008. Her subsequent books, Season of Secrets, All Fall Downand Close Your Pretty Eyes have all been published to critical acclaim.

Judges: “A very modern book which has the feel of a classic as well as heaps of heart.”

Jessica’s Ghost by Andrew Norriss (David Fickling Books)

When Jessica sits down next to Francis on a bench one break time, he’s surprised to learn that she isn’t actually alive – she’s a ghost. And she’s surprised too, because Francis is the first person who has ever been able to see her. Before long, Francis and Jessica are best friends, enjoying life more than they have in a long time. When they meet two more friends who also can see Jessica, the question arises: what is it that the children have in common? And is it connected with the existence of Jessica’s ghost? The answer, when it emerges, is both surprising and moving – and leads on to a dramatic conclusion that none of them could have foreseen.

Andrew Norriss won the 1997 Whitbread Children’s Book Award with Aquila. He started his writing career in television and, having written many brilliant series for adults (The Brittas Empire being one example) and children (including dramatising his own books – both Aquila and Matt’s Million for TV), now writes novels full-time. Andrew most recently published a new series for (slightly) younger readers, I Don’t Believe it Archie and Archie’s Unbelievably Freaky Weekfor David Fickling Books.

Judges: “Funny, clever, beautifully written – it perfectly describes the transforming power of friendship.”

-ENDS-

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UK: Costa announces the shortlists for the 2015 Costa Book Awards

UK: Costa announces the shortlists for the 2015 Costa Book Awards

New StuffAlert Website and Improved eBay Alert Service Launched by SonicZero Limited

SonicZero London, England 31st May 2012 is pleased to announce the successful launch of its new upgraded website and improved email eBay alert service that helps increase the probability of buyers finding exactly what is being searched for on eBay.

eBay buyers have been using StuffAlert to locate hard to find items on eBay since 2007. Now, as well as setting up alerts when no matching items are found, users can create email alerts where up to 25 items have been found. A complete record of all the items found matching users searches is automatically created and available to users on the website.

With StuffAlert users can quickly and easily search eBay and set up email alerts for the items they are looking for. StuffAlert continues to search eBay all day everyday and automatically sends email eBay alerts notifying users of new listings with direct links to the item on eBay. Users can manage all their eBay searches and alerts in one place with no cap on how many alerts can be set up and with complete control over email alerts.Passwords are encrypted so only users know what searches they have set up.

“The decision to upgrade the service was made in response to users requests and coincided with a decision to get eBay approval to increase the frequency of our automatic eBay searches. The result has been to deliver more frequent and consistent eBays alerts to our users who in turn are successfully completing more transactions” stated Rene Bachman, Managing Director of SonicZero.

StuffAlert currently works on iPads and other similar tablet devices and should be accessible via smartphone later this year. It is available to eBay buyers using the US and UK eBay marketplaces. Plans are already underway for StuffAlert to be rolled out to other English speaking countries in the forthcoming weeks.

eBay buyers whether newcomers and seasoned users interested in learning more about StuffAlert’s eBay alert service can visit the website (http://www.stuffalert.com) or for more information Contact Us.

Via EPR Network
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The Book People list top books for Mother’s Day 2012

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, the Book People is encouraging people to buy books for the big day this year. The online bookshop sells everything from fiction written by big name authors, to popular celebrity cook books, and also has quirky reference books and celebrity autobiographies, meaning there will be something for everyone.

The Book People is one of the most popular online booksellers and stocks a wide range of genres, so choosing the ideal Mother’s Day gift from them is easy. Books can be bought from the online shop, or from through the catalogue, making it very easy to buy books for your mum this Mother’s Day.

Lindsay Eyers of the Book People said: “We’ve got thousands of books to choose from at the Book People, but we highly recommend our ‘Sophie Kinsella Writing as Madeleine Wickham Collection’, which contains three books for just £4.99.

“Wickham is an incredibly talented author and her books are full of wit and charm, while also being completely impossible to put down!”

The Book People has also recommended the ‘Katie Fforde Collection’ as a superb Mother’s Day gift. Containing 10 of the author’s best romance novels, such as ‘Stately Pursuits’, ‘Paradise Fields’ and ‘Highland Fling’, the collection is perfect for a spot of escapism and is ideal for romance fans.

For those who know that their mothers enjoy mystery fiction, the third collection in the Book People’s choice of Mother’s Day books might be of interest; the ‘Mary Stewart Collection’ comes with 10 books and is available for just £9.99 from the Book People. Stewart was first published in 1955 and is a bestselling author in the genre, and this collection includes some of her greatest works, such as ‘Madam, Will You Talk?’, ‘This Rough Magic’ and ‘The Moonspinners’.

There are also a number of fantasy fiction books on the list – the first in the True Blood series, ‘Dead Until Dark’ by Charlaine Harris, is recommended, as is ‘Twilight’ by Stephenie Meyer. The list also has a few cookbooks to choose from, such as the popular ‘Jamie’s Great Britain’ by Jamie Oliver, ‘Perfect Pies’ by Si King of the Hairy Bikers duo and‘Home Cooking Made Easy’ by Lorraine Pascale.

All of the Mother’s Day books listed on the Book People Blog, and many more, can be bought from www.thebookpeople.co.uk.

Via EPR Network
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Imagine Children’s Festival, Sponsored by the Book People, Big Success

Imagine Children’s Festival has been hailed as a huge success, delighting children of all ages with a whole host of activities. Sponsored by the Book People and taking place at London’s Southbank Centre, the festival saw amazing authors, one-off events, craft activities, comedy and music add up to create a unique celebration of children’s books . Taking place from 11 – 26 February 2012, there have been numerous highlights – as detailed below:

– Children adored Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon’s speech and Jeremy Strong’s book signing also had queues stretching out of the door.
– Comedian James Campbell delivered his live stand-up show for kids to a sold-out Queen Elizabeth Hall and absolutely brought the house down, before delighting his fans by signing DVDs afterwards. He even spared a minute to talk to the Book People backstage and explained why he likes to grow parsnips, along with demonstrating his incredible pancake-flipping skills!
– The Spirit Level at the Craft Pavilion saw Paul Collicutt run his robot-themed workshop in the morning and there was even a baby disco, with the little ones bobbing along in their papooses to songs like ‘Jump Around’.
-The brilliant Jackie Kay read her poems, inviting the audience to join in with her, while the fantastically funny Roger McGough also treated a thrilled audience to drawings of some of his best-loved poems.
-An incredible 90 minute musical theatre production of Dennis the Menace was also a huge hit. With Beanotown in crisis and the grown-ups declaring a war on fun, it was up to Dennis, Gnasher and co to unite and show that kids still want to enjoy themselves.

Books from many of the authors that appeared at this year’s Imagine Children’s Festival are available to buy at discounted prices from the Book People.

Via EPR Network
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The Book People builds up to the Imagine Festival 2012

The Imagine Festival, sponsored by online book retailer the Book People, is currently having the final touches put to it before the doors open at the Southbank Centre in London on February 11th. The festival aims to encourage children of all ages to think creatively and is packed with activities and events.

The Imagine Festival, sponsored by online book retailer the Book People, is currently having the final touches put to it before the doors open at the Southbank Centre in London on February 11th. The festival aims to encourage children of all ages to think creatively and is packed with activities and events.

Running from 11th – 26th February, the Imagine Festival is said to be one of the best children’s events of the year. The festival is now in its 11th year, having been run since 2001, and is set to be at its biggest and best in 2012. The list of events contains something for everyone, from musical and dance performances, through to poetry and fiction readings from some the best children’s authors in the world.

The festival is designed to encourage children to be creative, so there will be chances for children to make their own works of art, write their own fiction, and take part in dance and music events and workshops. With workshops covering all of these topics and more and opportunities to watch funny and entertaining acts, this festival is great for children and young people of all ages.

Children and parents can look forward to story-telling from books by Jacqueline Wilson, Cathy Cassidy, MacKenzie Crook and Francesca Simon, as well as a premiere of The Trial of Dennis the Menace musical. There will even be opera for babies, orchestral reproductions of The Jungle Book and Carnival of the Animals, and Robert Winston will be demonstrating some thrilling activities, included in his book Science Experiments.

“The Imagine Festival is meant to inspire children to become more creative in every aspect of their lives, and it also aims to introduce them to things they would not normally be interested in,” said Donna Stevenson of the Book People.

“For example, a lot of children that attend the Imagine Festival go home with a new interest in poetry or dance, and this can help to lead them to new hobbies and even, in some cases, to their future careers,” she added.

Babies and children’s story books can be bought online from the Book People.

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Red House calls for final nominations for Children’s Book Award

Online bookseller Red House is calling for members of the public to cast their vote in their Children’s Book Award before nominations close on 20th January 2012. The 2012 shortlist has been drawn up and children can choose one of 10 books to vote for.

The Children’s Book Award, now in its 32nd year, was founded in 1980 by author and librarian Pat Thompson, is run by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and sponsored by Red House, a mail order bookshop specialising in the sale of affordable children’s and babies books.

The literary award is split into three groups – books for younger children, younger readers and older readers. Voters must rank each book in the three categories and the overall winner of each is then put before a panel of judges. It is their job to select the best children’s book of the three.

Past overall winners have included ‘Skeleton Key’ by Anthony Horowitz (2003), ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’ by Rick Riordan (2006) and ‘Shadow’ by Michael Morpurgo (2011). This year’s shortlist is incredibly varied and holds some of the best children’s books of 2011, and many of the authors have already won numerous prizes and literary awards for their work in the past.

In the Younger Children category the nominees include ‘Rollo and Ruff and the Little Fluffy Bird’ by Mick Inkpen, ‘Don’t Worry Douglas!’ by David Melling, ‘Peely Wally’ by Kali Stileman and ‘Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice’ by Chris Wormell. The Younger Readers category contains ‘One Dog and his Boy’ by Eva Ibbotson, ‘Sky Hawk’ by Gill Lewis and ‘Brilliant World of Tom Gates’ by Liz Pichon. In the Older Readers category voters can choose from ‘Grace’ by Morris Gleitzman, ‘A Monster Calls’ by Patrick Ness and ‘My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece’ by Annabel Pitcher.

Lindsay Eyers of Red House said: “The Red House Children’s Book Award is always a big event and we want to make sure that people remember to get their votes in before the cut-off date.

“Once your children have voted, you should remember to take a look at our Pick of the Year, which showcases the top 40 books that didn’t quite make it onto the shortlist. And remember – all of the books included on the 2012 shortlist and our Pick of the Year are available to buy online from Red House.”

You can vote now by visiting www.redhousechildrensbookaward.co.uk.

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The Book People Show You How To Build A Classic Library

The Book People has revealed the top classic book collections every household should own if they are looking to build a classic library.

In their latest blog post, the Book People lists the top 10 classic book collections for adults and children that are not only great for having in the home but that also make perfect Christmas presents. With Christmas less than four weeks away, fiction books and children’s books are in popular demand as parents buy books for children, friends buy books for friends and others treat themselves to classic books to get stuck into during the Christmas holidays.

Authors making an appearance on the classic library blog post include legendary children’s author Roald Dahl and his collection which includes the BFG, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Enid Blyton and her Happy Days collection, and Roger Hargreaves’ must-have Little Miss collection.

For the older reader, the Book People recommends the Agatha Christie boxed collection, which encourages even those people who are short on time to enjoy the classics by presenting them on a series of CDs to listen to at home, in the car or on the move with a laptop. Other classic mystery collections that make the cut include Inspector Morse, and the Crime Classics collection which includes works by Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens. For those who prefer a collection of books from a range of different genres, the Man Booker Prize collection makes the perfect gift, with classics such as Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman and Snowdrops by A.D.Miller.

Lindsay Eyers of the Book People said: “Our customers love our book collections and if grouping a few of the best together in this way encourages adults and children to explore the classics then we feel our job is one well done.”

The Book People offers the latest fact and fiction books at hugely discounted prices all year round.

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Which? Puts The Book People Fourth In ‘Best Sites For Books’ List

The Book People, online seller of fiction books, children’s books and more, has been voted into fourth place in the ‘best sites for books’ list and 14th in the ‘Top 75 Online Shops Rated by Their Customers’.

In the UK’s largest survey of online shops, the Book People beat Tesco.com, Waterstones.com, WHSmith.com and 10 other big name brands to the top five, only being pipped to third position by Play.com, second place by Abebooks.co.uk and first place by Amazon.co.uk.

The results were ranked in order of their Which? customer score, which was calculated on current customer satisfaction and how likely a customer is to recommend the site to a friend. The Book People’s customer score was an impressive 80%, with Amazon.co.uk at 88% more and Play.com just 1% higher at 81%.

The Book People’s 80% also saw them take 14th place in the overall ‘best sites’ survey, which didn’t break the websites down by industry or category. Online underwear shop figleaves.com and thebodyshop.co.uk also scored 80%, meaning they shared the same spot with the Book People.

Interestingly Apple.com, one of the world’s largest and most successful brands, only scored 1% more than the Book People, putting them in 11th place alongside Screwfix.com and Wiggle.co.uk.

The Book People trumped brands such as MarksandSpencer.com (24th with 76%), Boots.com (34th with 72%) and ASOS.com (39th with 71%) in the customer satisfaction survey.

Emma Whyman of the Book People said: “We pride ourselves on keeping in close contact with all our customers so that we can continue to deliver a selection of handpicked books that we know they will love to read.

“This, coupled with attentive and efficient customer care, means we can be very proud of the experience our customers receive. It also means we have great foundations to build on and become even better!”

The Book People has jumped from 16th place in 2010 this year and is looking to improve on this further next year.

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The Book People Announces Its Top 10 Book Review Sites

Today the Book People, one of the UK’s fastest growing online retailers of books, announced its top 10 book review sites.

Readers of the Book People blog will already have seen the post, which went live this morning and which lists the site’s favourite book and reviews blogs of the moment. Lovereading.co.uk, Book Rabbit and Book Reviews for Mums all appear on the list, along with two sites from the world of fantasy, paranormal and science fiction.

One of The Book People’s bloggers, Nick Woolnough, writes: “We can’t resist rummaging around on the web to see just what people have to say about books – children’s books, fiction, biography books, history books…the truth is, we just can’t get enough of talking about books and hearing what others love to read!”

As well as enjoying the accolade of being picked as a top review site by such a respected book retailer, owners of the featured blogs have also been contacted with a ‘winner’s badge’ to display proudly on their site. Alongside this, the Book People have provided a personalised recommendation for each of the blogs to feature as they wish, on their site.

The Book People not only wanted to share its favourite blogs with its own fans, but it is also actively promoting affordable reading for all, something it has believed in ever since it was founded in 1988. Sign up to the Book People’s RSS feed and follow them on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with the latest must-reads in the world of children’s books and fiction books and to see which authors are up and coming!

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The Book People Announces Ways It Is Helping To Tackle Poor Literacy Levels

In light of the latest, shocking figures from the National Literacy Trust, renowned bookseller the Book People highlights the way in which it is helping to make reading accessible and affordable for all.

According to the NLT’s report, which will be published in full later this month, one in four children attending primary schools in London currently leave without the skills to be able to read properly. Of those, five per cent can barely read at all and in the worst-performing inner city schools, 40 per cent of children leave with a reading age of a six to nine-year-old.

Susie Chalmers, Marketing Director at the Book People said: “At the heart of the Book People is the ethos of bringing books to people and making reading affordable to all. Figures like this are worrying, but only strengthen our determination to ensure that we continue to play our part in introducing children of all ages to the joy of reading.”

The Book People began in 1988 and since that very first day it adopted a business model that drove down the cost of books for the general public. Now, it is reaching new readers every day, thanks to a huge online presence and a network of dedicated distributors who place books in hospitals, offices and most importantly, nurseries and schools.

It is hoped that by combining huge discounts – generally more than 50 per cent off the RRP – great incentives to buy books, such as redeemable book points and the Points Passport loyalty scheme, and offering frequent free delivery and discount code promotions to bring prices down even further, that reading will become all the more appealing.

Specialising in exclusive collections that offer even greater value to the customer, the Book People have looked to support children’s reading schemes by teaming up with Oxford Reading Tree to offer educational sets such as the Biff, Chip and Kipper Collection at a discount of more than 80 percent.

The Book People also owns Red House, a specialist website providing the latest and very best children’s books. The titles are handpicked by knowledgeable book buyers who know just what will encourage children, parents and teachers to read. It recently gave more than 150 books to children in foster care.

Daniel Webb, Red House editor, knows how important reading is to a child’s development.

“Here at Red House, we supply everything from board books for babies to compelling novels for confident readers, early readers to teen fiction. Our emphasis is always on finding the books that children themselves would choose. In this way, Red House supports the efforts of parents and teachers to encourage children to read,” he said.

Anyone can buy books online from the Book People, and with a huge collection of fictionbooks, children’s educational guides, reference books and much more available at rock bottom prices there is really no barrier to reading.

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The Book People Nominated for Prestigious Bookseller Award

One of the UK’s most successful online bookshops, the Book People, has been shortlisted for the accolade of Direct Bookselling Company of the Year in the prestigious 2011 Bookseller Industry Awards.

The Book People is already the proud owner of two such awards – one in the same category as they are nominated for this year and the other for founder Ted Smart’s Outstanding Contribution to Bookselling. Since their inception in 1988 the Book People has grown rapidly and developed into one of the nation’s most important retailers of fiction books, children’s books and more. This latest nomination is testament to the popular service they offer to consumers.

Organisers of the award remarked that the Book People (TBP) had “successfully honed its bringing books direct to the workplace model for 22 years, and added increased digital elements in 2010. TBP has upped its online product ranges to 18,000 lines, which has boosted average order values by a huge 150 per cent. Development in search engine optimisation also helped to raise sales.”

It is for these reasons that the Book People has been nominated in the direct bookseller category, alongside amazon.co.uk, The Book Depository and Scholastic Book Clubs.

Neill Denny, the Bookseller’s editor-in-chief, praised this year’s nominees, saying: “The overall standard of entries was incredibly high despite, or perhaps because of, the turbulent times we are living through. It will be a very tough job choosing the winners from such a strong field.”

This year, a total of 17 awards will be presented at the Book Industry Conference, a black-tie gala dinner hosted by London’s Park Lane Hilton on Monday 16th May. As well as the usual array of awards, this year’s awards will feature two new categories; Children’s Publisher, and Library Innovation of the Year.

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teacher-books.net Offers Big Discounts to Educators

CEO Greg Michaels of Michaels Associates LLC announced today that the company will soon unveil a new website www.teacher-books.net. The new site represents a complete re-design of www.michaelsassociates.com. Visitors to the old site will be automatically redirected to the updated site.

The company, founded in 1986, had its first website in 1995 and specializes in professional resources for K-12 educators and administrators. Michaels Associates LLC has been named “distributor of the year” three times by the International Reading Association. They are also one of the nation’s leading distributors for resources from Scholastic, Pearson, Maupin House, Sage, Shell Education, Guilford, NCTE, ASCD, and many others. Also sold on the site will be leveled books for guided reading and reading recovery as well as school supply items.

The new website will feature new, best-selling, and classic professional titles from over 30 publishers – at a discount. There will also be a button on the homepage that will take administrators and librarians to a page that offers deep discounts on topic-based professional libraries and multiple copies of the same title.

The site is expected to operational by mid-February 2011. Contact CEO Greg Michaels at 1-800-869-1467 or gmichaels@michaelsassociates.com

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Tesco Win Green Retailer of the Year Award

Tesco, the leading UK retailer in beers, wines and spirits, won the Green Retailer of the Year at the Drinks Business Green Awards held at the end of March.

Tesco Win Green Retailer of the Year Award

Tesco picked up the award following a number of measures being taken by the retailer to make its packaging for alcoholic drinks as environmentally friendly as possible.

Tesco currently has 461 packaging reduction projects in beers, wines and spirits. So far, the retailer has have delivered 24,047 Metric Tonnes of BWS packaging reduction with another 8,000 MTs to be delivered in the next 6 months. Tesco has also driven the development of wines in Tetra Pak to increase their acceptability in the UK market. Tetra Pak is made of 75% paperboard, a low carbon raw material which they are working towards having 100% certified, currently by FSC. The hugely successful Tesco Value Spanish wines, packaged in Tetra Pak, have sold about 20,000 units per line per week since launch and the range was expanded to include a New World Value range from Chile in 2009.

As well as reducing packaging, Tesco has been active in driving glass reduction. Lightweight bottles have saved 5,500 MTs of glass on the retailer’s Own Label wines and even lighter ones are currently being pioneered. Additionally the proportions of recycled glass in Tesco’s Own Label bottles has been driven up by Tesco and now stands at 90% recycled content in green glass bottles and 35% for flint (clear glass).

Importing New World Wines in bulk and bottling them in the UK has saved 52,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. Wines are ferried from Liverpool to Manchester on barge, taking 50 lorries of the road per week, saving 700,000 miles of emissions.

Tesco is committed to reducing the environmental impact of its delivery services as well. Delivery vehicles have been fitted with black boxes which monitor fuel consumption and drivers have been given advanced training to maximise fuel efficiency.

Following the successful introduction of carbon labelling on Tesco own brand products last year, the retailer is currently developing the first ever carbon footprinted Own Label wines with Highfield Estate in New Zealand (accredited by PAS2050). These will be a NZ Sauvignon Blanc and a NZ Pinot Noir.

In an effort to spread its knowledge to its customers, Tesco is putting additional levels of information on the back labels of wine bottles. These will include details on packaging reduction, disposal (recyclability), proportion of recycled material and carbon footprinting. Tesco has points of sale in its stores to encourage people to consider green options when making their purchases.

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Blackwell Announces Launch of New Online Magazine Subscription Service

Blackwell, the UK’s leading academic bookseller, has launched a new online magazine subscription service in partnership with magazine group ThreePM.

The new magazine service offers more than 850 titles including specialist and B2B magazines as well as more popular titles. With Blackwell’s historic strength in specialist, academic and professional markets the integration of upmarket magazine publications will provide even greater product choice for Blackwell customers.

Jessica Armishaw, head of online, said: “We feel that this is the ideal time to launch a new magazine subscription service in the run up to Christmas. Magazines make fantastic gifts, especially for that hard-to-buy-for relative. The site provides subscriptions for a diverse range of titles from The Economist, National Geographic, Country Life, Wired and the Spectator to the less familiar Selvedge, Nano and Decanter Magazine.”

The various categories including arts and culture, business and finance, career and industry, computers and technology, food and home, hobbies and leisure, lifestyle, motoring and transport, news and current affairs, science resources, women’s interest and even overseas titles.

Adding magazines to the diverse range of books already available from Blackwell Online further substantiates Blackwell as The Knowledge Retailer.

Many of the magazine subscriptions such as Time and Reader’s Digest are available on special offer and The Economist comes with a free gift. All magazines come with free delivery.

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Blackwell Launches Online eBook Store

Blackwell has announced the launch of its new online eBook store. The store will open with over 45,000 titles available for customers to download directly to their eBook reader or to view on their computer.

The new store has meant the creation of a partnership between Blackwell and Gardners in the UK. This involves the utilisation of the Gardner digital warehouse to ensure the file formats available cover all major eBook readers currently available including Adobe pdf & epub versions.

Jessica Armishaw Head of Online for Blackwell said “We’re excited to be able to offer our customers the ability to buy eBooks from blackwell.co.uk. Academic publishers have been quick to embrace this new technology and as such the number of academic titles available for customers is impressive and perfectly compliments our instore and online offer. While the number of trade titles is growing daily we expect our eBooks sales to grow significantly over the coming months.”

Bob Jackson, commercial director at Gardners said, “We’re pleased to be working with Blackwell.co.uk and their team. With 45,000 titles available today and UK publishers increasingly creating digital books alongside their physical books the range of books available will grow considerably and quickly”

Blackwell are also delighted to be launching a partnership with Endless Ideas of the Netherlands and their BeBook eBook reader. Blackwell will be launching the BeBook1 for sale in the UK at the beginning of August

Kamiel Keeris Managing Director for Bebook said, “BeBook is very proud to welcome Blackwell as one of the partners for the UK. Today Blackwell UK is the leading academic bookshop in the UK and has over 45 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales. Its staff continue to be renowned for their expertise, depth of knowledge and love of books. The presence of Bebook ereaders in the Blackwell stores offers exceptional visibility to the Bebook throughout the UK and marks a significant first step in the presence of the product on the consumer mass market.”

About Blackwell Ltd:

Blackwell is the leading academic bookseller in the UK with 44 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales. It has built an international reputation for bookselling excellence with links to academic institutions and libraries around the globe and has continued to expand its UK base on High Streets and in university campuses up and down the country. Blackwell is also a leading supplier of academic books to Libraries across the world.

In 1995, www.blackwell.co.uk became the first transactional online bookstore in the UK. In 1998, Blackwell opened its central London flagship store in Charing Cross Road, the book-lovers’ Mecca. Since this time, two flagship stores, Broad Street and Charing Cross Road, have both won Chain Bookseller of the Year at the Nibbies, the annual British Book Awards and also The Bookseller – Bookselling chain of the year and Retail chain of the year 2007.

Renowned specialist in medical books, law books, business books and science books, Blackwell has now been trading for over 130 years from its world-famous flagship store at Broad Street in Oxford. Its staff continues to be renowned for their expertise, depth of knowledge and love of books since the first Blackwell shop opened its doors.

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Blackwell, The UK’s Leading Academic Bookseller, Has Unveiled The Launch Of The 2.0 Espresso Book Machine (EBM) At Its Flagship Store, 100 Charing Cross London

It is the first bookshop installation of its kind within the UK, allowing any book to be selected f r o m an inexhaustible network of titles and prints on demand in just 3 minutes f r o m a digital file onsite, online at www.blackwell.co.uk, or uploaded in person f r o m CDs or flash drives.

The new Blackwell EBM, created by On Demand Books (ODB), uses revolutionary technology that allows publishers to offer titles through a novel channel of distribution at point of sale to the customer. It is able to print, bind and trim library-quality paperback books at 112 pages per minute, complete with four-colour covers, identical to factory made copies.

The arrival of the EBM in the UK is the result of an exclusive partnership between Blackwell and ODB and is anticipated to be welcomed amongst publishers, retailers and consumers alike. The Charing Cross EBM is hoped to be the first of many to be rolled out by Blackwell. Its debut at the flagship store will be followed by an appearance at the London Book Fair (April 20-22) before returning to its central London home permanently.

The EBM marks a new era for publishing and book retailing. It will enable publishers to cut out supply chain costs, match consumer demands and therefore eliminate unwanted returns. The EBM also removes the need for transportation, adding green credentials to the already impressive list of benefits saving on CO2 emissions and the pulping of unwanted books.

Blackwell predicts the EBM will increase shop sales due to being able to provide a far greater variety of books and popular titles to customers. Books needn’t be out of stock again and the need to wait for books to arrive f r o m a publisher should be a thing of the past. In addition, the EBM is able to bring rare texts back into production. As a committed supporter of small & independent publishers, the EBM allows Blackwell to provide a distribution channel for smaller publishers and hopes to attract a new audience of eager, budding authors and self publishers keen to see their work in print.

Andrew Hutchings, CEO of Blackwell, commented: “F r o m the first instance we read about the Espresso Book Machine we were very keen to see it in action. F r o m a retailer’s and book supplier’s point of view this is a fantastic opportunity for Blackwell. We are very much looking forward to working with ODB.”

Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand Books commented: “Blackwell is a superb partner of choice for us to launch in the UK market. It has an outstanding pedigree of book history behind it with a reputation to innovate. Blackwell’s academic books and specialist credentials both here and overseas are well suited for demonstrating the extent of the Espresso Book Machine’s capabilities and we believe together we can maximise this exciting development in the book market.”

Consumers can go to Blackwell’s Charing Cross book store f r o m April 27th onwards to witness their book printed on the spot, or order a print on demand book online through the Blackwell site.

About Blackwell Ltd:
Blackwell is the leading academic bookseller in the UK with over 50 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales. It has built an international reputation for bookselling excellence with links to academic institutions and libraries around the globe and has continued to expand its UK base on high streets and in university campuses up and down the country. Renowned specialist in medical books, business books and law books, Blackwell has now been trading for over 125 years f r o m its world-famous flagship store at Broad Street in Oxford.

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Online luxury baby retailer now carries a selection of House Inc. bedding and furniture

www.BabyBox.com, a luxury retailer of high-end crib bedding, baby furniture and baby gifts, announced today the addition of selectHouse Inc. bedding and furniture to its existing collections. The latest offering complements its extensive selection of premier nursery furniture, baby bedding, baby clothes and baby gifts, making BabyBox.com the premiere online destination for those with discriminating taste.

“We are thrilled to announce our latest addition of baby bedding and baby furniture f r o m House Inc., which is known for its unpretentious style and comfort,” said Katherine Type, founder of BabyBox.com. “The House Inc. baby bedding and destination inspired furniture collections round out our distinguished roster of the most exclusive names in luxury baby furniture and baby bedding.”

The House Inc. Bedding Collection was created to beautify a child’s surroundings and encourage heavenly sleep. Featuring a full line of crib bedding, duvets, bed skirts, sheets, Euro shams, Standard shams, King shams, boudoir pillows, neckroll pillows, curtain panels and valances. Moses baskets and fabrics by the yard complement nurseries and children’s bedrooms of any theme or decor.

Featuring delicious color and pattern combinations such as Neopolitan Chocolate Blue, Maiden’s Sage Bouquet and Pashmina Pink, theHouse Inc. line of luxury baby bedding is made f r o m soft poplin and jerseys. Designer Annette Tatum breaks f r o m the predictable with House Inc., where comfort and style meet with unexpected combinations of texture, pattern and color. House Inc. Baby brings Tatum’s philosophy to the nursery, where cozy comfort rhymes with happily ever after for playtime or sweet dreams.

The House, Inc. Maiden’s collection revolves around the feminine shape of the Maiden’s Bed. With curved legs and delicate decorative appliqué options, the solid wood, individually crafted furniture is the perfect focal point for little princesses’ rooms. Featuring clean lines and squared legs, the classically designed Cottage Bed by House Inc., with optional mosaic beading or rope molding, is a timeless treasure for any child’s room. Both styles are crafted in the USA, feature a choice of 16 beautiful colors and come in twin, full and queen sizes. Completing the collections are matching changing table, dresser, chests, bookshelves, bookcases, night stand, cubby and bench.

In addition to the latest House Inc. collection, BabyBox.com features an A-list of upscale designers, such as Henry & Henrietta, Lulu DK Matouk, Lulla Smith, Gordonsbury, Serena & Lily, Blauen, Sweet William, Lullaby and Baby B, among others.

About BabyBox.com
BabyBox.com is a premier baby gift store for children, ages newborn to 12 months. Offering a specialized selection of luxury baby items, the company prides itself on serving a niche market with a focus on unique and high quality products including adorable crib bedding, baby clothes, nursery décor, quality children’s furnishings, baby furniture, custom baby bedding, Moses baskets, bassinets, handmade items, as well as traditional gifts, such as toys, baby blankets and keepsake gifts. In addition to the specialized infant collections, BabyBox.com has expanded its offerings to provide furniture, bedding, décor and clothing for older children. With headquarters in Darien, Conn., BabyBox.com has provided unique baby gifts since 1997. For more information, please visit www.BabyBox.com.

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Blackwell Online Are Seeing Strong Sales Of Business Books, Despite The Current Business And Financial Downturn

Blackwell Online, the leading UK based book retailer, has seen strong sales of its business books, despite the credit crunch continuing to have a firm grip on most companies and businesses throughout the country.

As the UK enters into a period of increased business and financial instability, the question emerges of how well equipped today’s business leaders and employees are to manage their businesses during a recession, when the prevailing trend of the past years has been one of growth and stability.

Blackwell believes this explains why Blackwell Online has seen buoyant sales in the past six weeks – including the three top selling business books “Acquisitions Essentials”, “Ideas are Free” and “Future-Engage-Deliver”.

In fact Blackwell has a wide range of books addressing the theme of financial instability. A new book on Blackwell Online’s virtual bookshelves is “Panic”. This book looks at how people’s lives are ruled by the cycle of financial boom and bust. “Panic” is a collection of articles from contemporary commentators, giving a new insight into how markets operate and who really knows what they’re talking about.

To cater for the strong interest in business books and financial books which can offer advice on how to survive a recession, Blackwell Online has pulled together a unique collection which can be viewed online on the Blackwell business books page.

About Blackwell
Blackwell is the leading book seller of medical and education texts in the UK with over 60 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales. It has built an international reputation for bookselling excellence with links to academic institutions and libraries around the globe and has continued to expand its UK base on high streets and in university campuses up and down the country.

In 1995, www.blackwell.co.uk became the first transactional online bookstore in the UK, giving people across the world access to over 150,000 titles. In 1998, Blackwell opened its central London flagship store in Charing Cross Road, the book-lovers’ Mecca. Since this time, two flagship stores, Broad Street and Charing Cross Road, have both won Chain Bookseller of the Year at the Nibbies, the annual British Book Awards.

Blackwell has now been trading for over 125 years from its world-famous flagship store at Broad Street in Oxford. Blackwell’s staff continue to be renowned for their expertise, depth of knowledge and love of books since the first Blackwell shop opened its doors.

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Blackwell Has Launched Its New Christmas Collection With The Headline That A Book Is A Gift Which Lasts A Lifetime

In the current climate of bad economic news Blackwell are hoping that shoppers will see books as a good long term investment and a gift which will last. With this thought in mind, Blackwell has brought together a Christmas collection of inspiring books and new compelling offers.

One of the exciting features of the Blackwell Christmas books presentation is the introduction of the ‘book of the week’. The book of the week is a top title carefully selected by Blackwell’s expert booksellers – and offered at half price. The book of the week can be purchased from Blackwell Online or in any of the Blackwell bookshops.

This Christmas a ‘3 for 2’ offer is also being introduced to Blackwell Online. This is an established offer in the Blackwell Bookshops, offering great value for money, but is the first time it has been included online. The Blackwell Christmas 3 for 2 selection encompasses a number of collections of books, including Blackwell‘s favourite Paperbacks of the Year, Facts and Trivia and the Small but Perfectly Formed collection. The Blackwell favourite paperbacks collection covers a wide range of subjects from biography to food and drink and is one of the bestselling collections.

With many customers wanting to allow friends and family the opportunity to choose their own books, Blackwell has recently launched an electronic gift card. These gift cards can be both purchased and redeemed on Blackwell Online and in the bookshops.

With Christmas just weeks away Blackwell are hoping that in tough economic timesbooks will be gifts which last a lifetime.

About Blackwell
Blackwell is the leading bookseller of medical and education texts in the UK with over 40 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales. It has built an international reputation for bookselling excellence with links to academic institutions and libraries around the globe and has continued to expand its UK base on high streets and in university campuses up and down the country.

In 1995, www.blackwell.co.uk became the first transactional online bookstore in the UK, giving people across the world access to over 150,000 titles. In 1998, Blackwell opened its central London flagship shop in Charing Cross Road, the book-lovers’ mecca. Since this time, two flagship shops, Broad Street and Charing Cross Road, have both won Chain Bookseller of the Year at the Nibbies, the annual British Book Awards.

Blackwell has now been trading for over 125 years from its world-famous flagship shop at Broad Street in Oxford. Its staff continue to be renowned for their expertise, depth of knowledge and love of books since the first Blackwell shop opened its doors.

Via EPR Network
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Blackwell Delivers The Pleasure Of Buying And Browsing In A Bookshop Thru Its New Digital Strategy

Blackwell has announced the launch of the first phase of its new digital strategy. This phase sees the UK’s leading book retail chain refreshing its online presence www.blackwell.co.uk

The update aims to deliver a more customer focused experience by drawing on the pleasure of buying and browsing in a bookshop and translating this into the site’s navigational journeys. From title recommendations on the new feature carousels to rich new book reviews, Blackwell draws knowledge and opinion from its community of bookselling specialists and experts. Blackwell has created a new browsing experience where regular podcasts and author interviews are supported and enriched by local shop promotions and featured favourites chosen by expert Blackwell booksellers.

Blackwell bookshop has also taken the opportunity to extend the range of products available to their online customers. As well as own brand stationery and book accessories, the latest updates herald the arrival of the entertainment section for CDs, audio books and DVDs.

Blackwell is keen to take its services and offer them to new audiences and so it has also established an attractive new online bookshop affiliate programme, with rates set to be more competitive than Amazon’s, which is being managed by Equator.

On the launch Claire Zuurbier, director of e-commerce, said, “This refreshed presentation is just the first stage of a number of releases planned over the next twelve months. Forthcoming phases incorporate a variety of digital media and social networking tools but all will have the customer at the heart of the changes and will continue to maximise and reflect the multi-channelled nature of Blackwell’s business”.

About Blackwell
Blackwell is the leading book seller of medical and education texts in the UK with over 60 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales. It has built an international reputation for bookselling excellence with links to academic institutions and libraries around the globe and has continued to expand its UK base on high streets and in university campuses up and down the country.

In 1995, www.blackwell.co.uk became the first transactional online bookstore in the UK, giving people across the world access to over 150, 000 titles. In 1998, Blackwell opened its central London flagship store in Charing Cross Road, the book-lovers’ Mecca. Since this time, two flagship stores, Broad Street and Charing Cross Road, have both won Chain Bookseller of the Year at the Nibbies, the annual British Book Awards.

Blackwell has now been trading for over 125 years from its world-famous flagship store at Broad Street in Oxford. Its staff continues to be renowned for their expertise, depth of knowledge and love of books since the first Blackwell shop opened its doors.

Via EPR Network
More Retail press releases