AP News, August 8th, 2007
A year after adding books to its growing entertainment lineup, Starbucks Corp. says it will soon begin selling its third pick, a collection of 50 stories in an oral history project compiled on book and CD.
Edited by Peabody Award winner Dave Isay, "Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Lives From the StoryCorps Project" will go on sale at Starbucks' more than 6,500 company-operated U.S. stores beginning Nov. 8, the company said Tuesday.
First-person accounts of everyday life from StoryCorps contributors are broadcast every Friday on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program. The entire collection is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
Isay, founder of StoryCorps and its parent company, Sound Portraits Productions, said choosing the 50 stories to include in the book published by The Penguin Press was one of the most rewarding challenges he's ever faced.
"There are so many genuine stories, spoken with such passion and character, that it was difficult to narrow the selection," he said in a statement released by Starbucks.
Starbucks, which also sells and promotes music and movies, got into the book business last fall with Mitch Albom's "For One More Day," and started selling "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Sierra Leone native Ishmael Beah earlier this year.
As of July 29, Starbucks had sold more than 100,000 copies of "For One More Day," and more than 117,000 copies of "A Long Way Gone."
The boxed set of "Listening Is an Act of Love" and an accompanying CD will be available exclusively at Starbucks, company spokesman Doug Cavarocchi said. The book and an abridged version on CD will be sold at major retailers.
