Introducing Nancy Pearl’s “Book Lust Rediscoveries” Series

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Rediscoveries series, a line of Pearl’s favorite, presently out-of-print books to share with readers hungry for her expert recommendations. Book Lust Rediscoveries will publish approximately six books a year and will be made available for sale in print editions via Amazon.com and as audiobooks via Amazon.com and Audible.com, at bookstores, wholesalers and libraries nationwide and as eBooks in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Pearl’s literary agent, Victoria Sanders of Victoria Sanders & Associates LLC, represented her in this deal. To learn more about Book Lust Rediscoveries, visit www.amazon.com/BookLustRediscoveries.

“Helping these wonderful books find new readers is, for me, a joy and a delight. I was blown away by Amazon Publishing’s enthusiasm for the project and the extent to which they really understood what I wanted to do.”

Nancy Pearl has been recommending books to readers for decades, and her best-selling book “Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason,” contains approximately 1800 book recommendations. A large portion of these books were either out-of-print or permanently out of stock. Pearl received numerous letters from readers who were eager to read these books, but were having great difficulty finding copies. This dilemma inspired Pearl’s idea to republish a series of her recommended books, complete with an introduction written by Pearl, a list of discussion questions for book groups and suggestions for other titles that may also appeal to the reader.

Called “the talk of librarian circles” by the New York Times and perhaps the only librarian to be immortalized as an action figure, Nancy Pearl has become a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next. Having worked as a librarian and bookseller in Detroit, Tulsa and Seattle, Pearl’s knowledge of and love for books is unmatched. In 1998, she developed the program “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” which spread across the country. The former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book, Pearl celebrates the written word by speaking at bookstores and libraries across the country and on her monthly television program Book Lust with Nancy Pearl on the Seattle Channel. She is also a regular commentator about books on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and NPR affiliate stations KUOW in Seattle, WPR in Wisconsin and KWGS in Tulsa. In 2004, Pearl became the 50^th winner of the Women’s National Book Associates Award for her extraordinary contribution to the world of books. In 2011, Pearl received both the Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year award, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I’m thrilled that Book Lust Rediscoveries makes it possible to republish many of my all-time favorite novels, all of which have long been out of print,” said Nancy Pearl. “Helping these wonderful books find new readers is, for me, a joy and a delight. I was blown away by Amazon Publishing’s enthusiasm for the project and the extent to which they really understood what I wanted to do.”

“Any book lover would jump at the chance to work with Nancy Pearl, but this project is especially close to our hearts since it’s about rediscovering and republishing great books, which was the tenet of our first imprint, AmazonEncore,” said Victoria Griffith, Publisher, Amazon Publishing, Seattle. “We look forward to working with Nancy to share these wonderful, worthy books with a broader audience.”

The first two books to be published in the Book Lust Rediscoveries series, with descriptions from Nancy Pearl, are:

“A Gay and Melancholy Sound” by Merle Miller: Summing up this book is difficult – it’s almost 600 pages, for one thing, so there’s a lot going on. Basically, Joshua Bland tells the story of his life growing up in small-town Iowa as a child prodigy to his career as a theater producer and his most recent divorce: a life marked by a failure to love and be loved. The writing is spectacular but not showy; the narrator’s emotional pain is palpable; and it’s the sort of novel that readers of literary fiction will enjoy.
“After Life” by Rhian Ellis: From its terrific opening line, “First, I had to get his body into the boat,” readers will be drawn into the life of Naomi Ash, and her mother, a psychic. After fleeing their home in New Orleans after a séance has gone badly awry, mother and daughter resettle in a community in upstate New York that’s filled with traffickers in the supernatural. Enter grad student and love interest Peter Morton, mix the plot lines adroitly, and you end up with a charming novel that’s part psychological thriller, partly a story of mothers and daughters, and partly something entirely original.

Nancy Pearl has committed to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales of books in the Book Lust Rediscoveries to the Nancy Pearl Endowment for Public Librarianship at the University of Washington’s Information School. “A Gay and Melancholy Sound” is scheduled to publish on April 3, 2012, and “After Life” is scheduled for June 5, 2012, both by AmazonEncore. Amazon Publishing is the publishing arm of Amazon, and is made up of six imprints: AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, The Domino Project, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer and 47North, as well as the New York-based division. For more information about imprints of Amazon Publishing, visit www.amazon.com/amazonpublishing. Amazon Publishing is a brand used by Amazon Content Services LLC.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core processor.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.