TODAY'S NEWS

Houghton Develops iPhone Apps for Dictionaries
By Rachel Deahl
In the first move by a major American publisher to publish iPhone-ready (and friendly) reference material, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has rolled out applications for four of its reference titles. The titles, which can be purchased in Apple's App Store range in price from $29.99, for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, to $8.99 for Wall Street Words.

David Langevin, v-p and director of electronic markets at Houghton, said that the $29.99 American Heritage 4th Edition app brings the 2,074-pages of content in the print title (which weighs some 7.5 pounds) to the device in a functional and user-friendly way. The app features photos, maps and sound (so users can hear pronunciations) and, Langevin noted, its release marks the first time a publisher has made a dictionary of this size available on a handheld device. Read on »

Just Books Planning Grand Re-Opening
by Kevin Howell
Just Books, the independent bookstore in Old Greenwich, Conn., is holding a grand re-opening and open house on Saturday, September 6 to celebrate its new ownership and show off the remodeling that has taken place since it closed in early July.

In late May, Marion Holmes became the new owner of the bookstore that has undergone location and name changes since 1949. The original, 800-sq.-ft. bookstore was owned and operated by Warren Cassell in Greenwich. He sold the store to Jenny Lawton in January 2002 and six months later she opened an annex location, called Just Books Too, five miles away in Old Greenwich. In 2005, Lawton closed the original location and consolidated the two stores into the newer location. Under Holmes' new ownership, the bookstore is dropping the "Too" and reverts back to Just Books. Read on »

Riggio’s Project Selects New Orleans Families for New Homes
By Lynn Andriani
Project Home Again (PHA) announced it has completed the selection of 20 local families who will receive new homes currently under construction in New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood. Len Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, and his wife, Louise, created PHA in February to help rebuild New Orleans from the impact of Hurricane Katrina by providing new homes for families displaced by the hurricane three years ago.

Riggio said, "PHA has invested a significant amount of time to ensure that [these 20 families] are absolutely the right choice for this project and have truly been moved by their invincible spirit and heartbreaking stories." Read on »

Penguin Group Signs With OverDrive
OverDrive, supplier of downloadable audio books and e-books to over 7,500 libraries, has added hundreds of titles from Penguin Group to their digital warehouse of over 150,000 titles. According to John Fagan, Penguin eBooks Marketing Director, "Teaming with OverDrive gives us a unique opportunity to offer our expansive collection to the digital library market and deliver our quality titles to even more readers" Front- and backlist Penguin titles are available in Mobipocket PRC and Adobe PDF formats. New titles will be added to the OverDrive warehouse monthly.

Distribution Changes
Candlewick Press will move its Canadian distribution from Penguin Group (Canada) to Random House of Canada, effective February 1, 2009. Under the agreement, Random House of Canada will provide sales and marketing activities while Random House Publisher Services will assume all back-office services, including warehousing, shipping, invoicing and collecting for Candlewick titles in Canada as well as the U.S. Candlewick continues to perform all sales and marketing activities for the U.S. market internally from its corporate headquarters.

While National Book Network is distributing London-based Quadrille Publishing's line of stationery, Ingram Publisher Services will continue to distribute its book line.

Monday's Reviews Today: 13 Shorts from King & 13 Books That Changed America
Abstract: In Just After Sunset, Stephen King's first book of short fiction since 2002, the prolific bestseller is "at the top of his game" delivering 13 stories that stand as "a testament to the literary merits of the well-told macabre tale." Thirteen other treasures can be found in Jay Parini's Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America. Highlighting a range of works from "masterpieces" to "icons of a moment in American history" Parini, a novelist and critic, swings from Thoreau to Betty Friedan to Dr. Spock to show "the evolving American dynamic." Read on »

Blogs

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Babylon AD; New Orleans Hurricanes; Michael Agovino
Today's the opening of the film Babylon AD, based on French sci-fi novelist Maurice G. Dantec's Babylon Babies (Del Rey, $6.99; Blackstone Audiobooks unabridged CD, $24.95) and starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Gerard Depardieu, and Charlotte Rampling. PW wrote "Riddled with acronyms and pop culture allusions, this is an intense, intellectually labyrinthine ride." Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Scotton Goes 'Splat' in the Caymans
On Tuesday author/illustrator Rob Scotton read from his latest picture book, Splat the Cat (HarperCollins), at Books & Books in the Cayman Islands for a back-to-school author event. The event was presented in collaboration with The Grand Cayman Humane Society, which also sponsored a petting zoo and wildlife classes.
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JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

To access the latest issue of Publishers Weekly no matter where you are, be sure to take a look at PW's Virtual Edition -- available online anytime. If you're not already a subscriber, take a look at a sample issue here.