Costco Connection - August 2006

bo_lo_ook_k
Also:
■ Microsoft and Wiley
■ Peace Prize
■ Christy Awards

TOM ECKERLE

RANDOM HOUSE has announced that it will significantly increase its reliance on recycled paper. Over a four-year period the publisher will slowly raise the amount of recycled paper it uses.

The goal is to go from the 3 percent recycled paper it currently uses up to 30 percent by 2010. Random House believes that reaching the 30 percent mark will translate into saving 550,000 trees annually.

Source: Publisher’s Weekly

Microsoft and Wiley
sign book deal

Publisher John Wiley and Microsoft have signed two separate agreements to publish a series of branded Microsoft textbooks and business books over the next several years. Wiley expects to begin publishing the business titles, under the name Microsoft Executive Circle, in the winter of 2007. Expectations are for six to 12 titles to be released annually, with the series reaching approximately 50 titles. Authors from inside and outside Microsoft will cover topics such as communications, security, data integrity, technology and strategy.

Source: Publisher’s Weekly

New prize to honor peace

A group of writers, academics, librarians, media and other Dayton, Ohio, literati, including representatives from the Antioch Review and the Kenyon Review, have announced the inauguration of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The award is designed to recognize writers whose works address themes of peace as a solution to conflict. They prize will consist of two $10,000 cash awards to be given to one fiction and one nonfiction author each year.

The new prize is an outgrowth of the Day Peace Prize, which has been award four times over the last 10 years to different world leaders.

In a statement to the press, Sharon Kelly Roth, a member of the 21-member Dayton Literary Peace Prize Committee, said, “Somewhere within the book, the author has to talk about resolving conflict with words. It can be addressed on any of several levels: peace among family members, communities, nations, religions, ethnic groups and so on. We wanted to have broad appeal.”

Source: Publisher’s Weekly

The Christy Awards

The seventh annual Christy Awards were awarded on July 8 at the Denver Marriott City

Ellen Wright and Meredith Brokaw (right), co-authors of Big Sky Cooking— see signings below.

Center. According to the Web site www.christy awards.com, the awards, which honor Christian fiction, are designed to nurture and encourage creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview; bring a new awareness to the breadth and depth of fiction choices available, helping to broaden the readership; and provide an opportunity to recognize novelists whose work may not have reached bestseller status. This year’s winners include:

Contemporary (stand-alone): Levi’s Will, by W. Dale Cramer

Contemporary (series, sequels and novellas): The Road Home, by Vanessa Del Fabbro

Historical: Whence Came a Prince, by Liz Curtis Higgs

Romance: A Bride Most Begrudging, by Deeanne Gist

Suspense: River Rising, by Athol Dickson

Visionary: Shadow over Kiriath, by Karen Hancock

First novel: This Heavy Silence, by Nicole Mazzarella

Book
giveaway

COSTCO HAS FIVE SIGNED COPIES of Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark, to give away. To enter, print your name, membership number, address and daytime phone number on a postcard or letter and send it to: Two Little Girls in Blue, The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088, or fax it to (425) 313-6718.

No purchase is necessary. Entries

must be received or postmarked by midnight, September 1, 2006. Void where prohibited. Employees of Costco and their families are not eligible. Winners will be notified by mail. One entry per household.

Send your feedback on this month’s Buyer’s Pick to: discussionquestions@costco.com

signings

Sylvia Browne signs Insight: Case Files from the Psychic World on August 5, at 1 p.m., at the Almaden, California, Costco at 5301 Almaden Expressway.